


Bubblegum Bitch

by SpaceDragon435



Series: Sweet Like Bubblegum [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Biker Gangs, Blackmail, Fanart Included, Feelings, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Swearing, Tattoos, Tension, american university/college au, biker chan, biker changbin, biker hyunjin, biker minho, biker woojin, coverwork, dares, jisung is the bubblegum bitch, jisung wears pink, talk of sex cause theyre adults but no actual sex, they all live in california
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-22 12:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 67,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22482889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceDragon435/pseuds/SpaceDragon435
Summary: Christopher Bang, or Chan as he's known to his friends, is the unofficial leader of his university's biker gang, and literally all he wants to do is get through second year without any drama.But as we all can attest to: Life's a Bitch.Now with his best friend's future at risk, Chan reluctantly takes a bet to see if he can take the new guy's virginity: Peter Han. A loud, blonde, openly gay guy who's as pretty as he is sarcastic. Oh and he wears pink. A Lot of pink.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Han Jisung | Han, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin
Series: Sweet Like Bubblegum [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1617619
Comments: 57
Kudos: 240





	1. I'm Miss Sugar Pink

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This fanfiction does not in any way represent the real Stray Kids besides their appearance and names. I do not condone real-person shipping in any way that isn't just for fun. Chan and Jisung are not dating, and they never will, this fic isn't trying to change that, this is just good fun and nothing more. If you feel differently, I do not feel comfortable with you reading my fic, so please click off now.

* * *

A dark field with what sounds like a thousand voices screaming, no one voice discernible over the others, strangers. The grass is rough and spiky and streaked with blue and green underneath him. He wants to get up but he can’t move, can’t breathe. There's... something. Something squeezing his chest, burning his heart and breaking each of his ribs open one by one; needles forcing their way over his tongue, down his throat and marching through his lungs.

Choking.

… help me

A sudden scream, echoing around him like shattered glass. His scream. Fingernails scrabbling. Can't breathe can't breathe can't breathe. Pain, hot, cold. Where is he? Fire and glass and sand and dying and poison-soaked fingers and pain and death and-

_"CHRIS GET YOUR ASS UP RIGHT NOW OR YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE!"_

Chan wakes up just in time to catch a pillow straight to the face.

 _Impeccable_ aim his roommate has. 

Yawning as he moves the pillow from his face, Chan forces himself to sit up and focus his blurry vision enough to look at his door. It’s been left open, but said roommate has already left, probably gone to get breakfast if the clanging in the kitchen is anything to go by. Typical. Where’s his phone? Ah there it is. He swipes the screen and winces when the bright light hits his eyes. 9:48am, a little over an hour until their lecture starts. Chan groans, not particularly enthused by the idea of going to class, but regardless of his feelings, he shuts his phone off and manages to roll his way out of bed. Though as soon as he’s standing, his back twinges and his hand automatically snaps to the muscle to try and massage it. 

“This is what I get for going to sleep drunk” he mutters to himself, mentally calling his past-self stupid as he begins some stretching. He moves his arms up and over his head, going up on his tiptoes before carefully swinging his body down to try and touch the floor. His fingers make it to the bottom of his ankles before the stiffness from waking up less than a minute ago catches up with him and he has to go back up. This repeats for a couple of minutes before he’s finally able to lay his hands flat on the floor on the sixth stretch. 

Feeling sufficiently more limber, Chan goes to plug his phone in when he catches sight of his bed, still unmade, and looking so delightfully warm and comfy. Maybe he can get away with a lie in for just a _little_ while longer?

“CHAN! YOU BETTER BE UP OR IT’LL BE COLD WATER THIS TIME!”

Tragic.

“I’m up!” He calls back, wincing at the heavy voice crack, his throat is still vaguely sore from yesterday night. The clunking starts back up in the kitchen, meaning that his roommate must be satisfied that he’s up and awake. Good, because Chan doesn’t fancy having cold water dunked over his head. Motivated by the thought of that happening if he ends up taking too long, Chan quickly makes his bed and goes to get changed out of his pajamas. And he uses the term “pajamas” loosely because it’s literally just the t-shirt and sweatpants he put on half-asleep after his shower last night. The sweatpants are backwards he notices idly when he takes them off.

After his shower he throws on a simple white t-shirt and his favourite pair of jeans, black skinny ones with ripped knees. It’s not the colour or style though that makes them his favourite, it’s the small wallet chain he had attached to the belt loops himself, a fair few months ago by this point. Taking it off for washing them is a little bit of a pain, but Chan likes the style too much to complain about it. He finds a pair of black socks in his drawer and also slips them on, he prefers to walk around barefoot but the floor is weirdly cold in the kitchen so he’ll just have to suffer. 

Deciding to leave his phone in his room, Chan walks out into the small hallway before heading into the kitchen, where his roommate is at the table, bent over a plate of toast and looking at something on his phone. 

“About time you got up” Woojin says, not taking his eyes off his phone, though his words hold no real bite.

“Good morning to you too” Chan replies in the cheeriest voice he can muster as he crosses the kitchen to grab a bowl from the cupboard. He hears Woojin huff behind him and smiles in amusement. “Did you sleep well?” He continues after successfully grabbing a bowl and his box of cereal. 

“Yeah fine, you?” Woojin responds, still not having looked up from whatever’s caught his attention on his phone screen. 

Chan opens the fridge and makes an “eh” noise. Hmm, they need to get some more milk soon. “Alright I guess, had a weird dream though.” He grabs the carton and turns around, his eyes meeting Woojin’s, guess he’s done with whatever was on his phone then.

“What kind of weird?”

On their own, Chan’s eyes move up and he tilts his head back, trying to recall anything about his dream. It’s not much use, already the majority of the details have escaped him, not considered important enough to keep by his now-awake mind. 

“I don’t really remember. There was like” he pauses, “screaming? And I was lying on some grass? I think I was in pain but I can’t remember why or what kind of pain.”

Woojin gives him a mildly concerned look, “sounds fun.”

Chan just raises one shoulder in a kind of half-shrug before walking back to his bowl and pouring the milk in, setting the empty carton aside. “We need more milk.”

“I’ll pick some up tonight when we head home” Woojin says, “also I’m willing to bet your dream was just a kinda fucked up recounting of what happened last night.”

Chan pulls a face, swallowing his cereal before responding. “I wasn’t on the grass last night. Also this is California, we don’t have grass, we have dried up bits of yellow.”

“True, but you almost were, if Michelle and Evan didn’t rescue you right before you went face-first into the ground” Woojin laughs, and Chan squints his eyes.

“I literally don’t remember any of that.”

Woojin huffs a laugh. “Yeah cause you were fucking wasted, it was _hilarious_. It was after we left Silver Lining? The bar? We were headed back to ours when you decided you were gonna throw yourself off the sidewalk and go careening into the nearby field.”

Chan can vaguely recall some fuzzy memories of that, but not very many.

“Hyunjin almost followed you down there, he thought it was a _great_ idea.” Woojin says, still quietly laughing to himself as he recounts the memories. 

“Well when you’re celebrating you go big or go home” Chan says with a grin, “I think we deserved a night of crazy considering how well we did.”

Woojin hums, “true. It was very impressive. You got any other big events planned?”

“Swimming events?” 

“Yeah.”

“Uhhh” Chan says, thinking. “Not any time soon, the team’s taking a break from competitions for a while, but I’ll still be practicing of course. Oh, I know the new society I joined is trying to expand and do more sports since right now there’s only really tennis, baseball aaaaand basketball, so that will probably take priority over any sporting events they hold for the time being. I dunno, I’ll ask the society leaders and see if I can get a timetable organised.”

“Good, cause I also wanna know when you’re at society meetings so I can plan meals and stuff” Woojin says, picking up his phone when it makes a small “ding” sound. “Speaking of societies, the guys wanna know if we’re meeting up for lunch today.”

“Like a casual meet-up or a society meeting?”

“Casual” Woojin clarifies, “just to chill and stuff, so obviously not everyone is going to be there, but they want to know if we’re coming or not.”

Chan doesn’t answer immediately as he’s too busy tipping the bowl up to drink the remaining milk out of it, ignoring Woojin’s disgusted expression as he does so. 

“You’re an animal.”

Chan just gives him a thumbs up and finishes, putting the bowl back down and taking it to the sink to rinse it out. “Yeah we can go, I don’t think we have anything today other than the eleven a.m lecture right? Where are we meeting, just The Gallery again?”

“No it’s just the eleven a.m” Woojin says “and yeah The Gallery, as usual.”

Nice, Chan likes the food from there enough to stay for lunch. ‘The Gallery’ is the preferred meeting place of Chan as his friends, aka, the university’s very own motorbiking society (not a gang, despite what everyone calls it). A large student bar that did pretty good food, with two floors and some really nice booths and tables, as well as pieces of art donated by students hung up all over the walls, hence the name. The society was decently well known there, having a table they always went to, and being familiar with a decent chunk of the waiting staff there as well. 

“Right I’ll tell them we’ll meet them at twelve because that’s about the time we get out.”

“Nice, that means I can just order something from there for lunch instead of bringing something” Chan says. “Anyway I’m gonna go finish getting ready and then we can head out I guess.”

“Sounds good” Woojin replies, and Chan leaves the kitchen and heads back into his bedroom, not bothering to close the door behind him.

He quickly makes his way over the nightstand and checks his phone battery, before throwing on his black combat boots and beloved leather jacket. To his dismay, some of the leather at the back of the collar is beginning to fade with the constant use, but it doesn’t look _too_ bad thankfully, just makes the whole thing seem even more worn than usual. Hyunjin has been bugging him lately about getting a new one, the younger male's obsessed with leather jackets, owning about six brand new (fake) leather ones, whereas Chan only has the one, which he’s had for about three or four years now. It's actually real leather though, and a hell of a lot more expensive than Hyunjin’s, not that Chan was the type to brag about that. Not that Chan was the type to brag about… Anything really. Lastly he grabs his backpack and after a quick double check to make sure he has everything, and fixing his hair (he should think about picking up some more dye as well soon) picks up his keys and exits his bedroom. 

Woojin is already waiting by the door when he gets there, wearing a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and his own leather jacket, also real leather. It doesn’t look like he’s been waiting long, still typing away on his phone. 

“What are you even doing?” Chan asks, gesturing to the phone when Woojin sends him a confused look. 

Without saying anything, Woojin just tilts his phone so Chan can see he’s still talking to the biker society group chat. 

“Minho’s trying to get everyone to do the creeper aw man song thing.”

“Oh my god, that's a dead meme by now” Chan says, hiding his laugh behind his hand as he unlocks the door and steps out into the hallway, Woojin following close behind him so he can re-lock it once they’re out. 

“Lift or stairs?” Chan asks, standing with his arms out in-between the elevator doors and the door that leads to the stairwell. He also does a little wiggle dance for good measure.

“Lift” Woojin says, clearly amused, “we live on the eighth floor, I’m not taking the stairs.”

“Okay, that’s not even that much and also you’re going _down_ , gravity is literally doing like eighty percent of the work for you” Chan retorts, but he gets into the elevator anyway. 

“Yeah but the elevator does one hundred percent of the work for me” is Woojin’s response. “Plus the stairs to the basement are still closed for cleaning.”

“Still?” Chan asks, heavily surprised, and Woojin just nods, shrugging a shoulder much like Chan did earlier in the kitchen.

From then on the conversation devolves into a comfortable silence, broken occasionally by Woojin telling Chan whatever shenanigans were happening in the group chat until they arrive on the basement level, aka, the car park. 

“Hyunjin’s apparently thinking about getting another tattoo” Woojin recounts as they step out of the elevator.

“Another one?” Chan asks, not at all surprised by the news, “where abouts?”

“His back. He obviously already has the arm sleeves and the neck one so I don’t know where else he could get one.”

“His leg?” 

Woojin’s face suggests he’s considering it, “I guess so. Bit of an awkward placing though, what if you want to wear shorts in a professional environment?”

“Okay what kind of professional environment makes you wear both a t-shirt and _shorts_?” Chan asks loudly as they enter the lot.

“Beach interview.”

“Oh well in that case I’m fucked” Chan says as he waves his left arm around, it looks a little silly since his tattoo sleeve is hidden underneath his jacket, but Woojin gets the point if his laugh is anything to go by. 

“I’d be fine” Woojin says, finally putting his phone into his leather jacket pocket and zipping it up so it doesn’t fall out during the ride. 

“Yeah for now” is Chan’s response to that, “you get your first tattoo… three or four months from now?”

“Yeah, probably three though.”

“Decided what you’re gonna go for?”

Woojin pauses, “I’m still thinking the lion or the rose so far, somewhere on my back so my future students won’t see it if this whole teaching thing works out.”

“Aww, but you’d be the coolest teacher ever” Chan teases, dodging out of the way of Woojin’s hand as it comes to swat his arm. 

Whatever Woojin was about to say next is cut off when they reach the motorbike section of the car park and their rides come into view.

Chan’s motorbike is a gorgeous, candy-red Ducati 996. It positively _gleams_ under the lights of the car park, the payoff for hours of hard polishing and delicate maintenance upheld on a weekly basis. Chan has invested so much time, effort, money and care into this bike and it is his _baby_. Sure it might be a fairly old model, and has some trouble starting sometimes, but Chan wouldn’t trade it for anything else, he loves this bike with his whole heart and soul. 

He takes a second to check it over with his eyes, and when it looks fine, jumps onto the seat and sticks his keys into the ignition. Luckily, this morning the bike starts fine with no whining noise, Chan really has to get it checked out again at some point, not that it would do much, he already knows the issue. The bike comes to life under him, harsh vibrations immediately shaking Chan’s legs. It wasn’t the smoothest ride, being typical of a racing motorcycle, and its age, but Chan welcomes it with open arms, he’s never felt happier than being on this bike. 

“Sounding good” Woojin comments as he climbs onto his own bike, a metallic silver Suzuki Intruder M1800R thats chunky and squarish frame is oddly sleek and elegant, and fits Woojin perfectly. 

“Yep, she’s still good” Chan says with a smile as he pulls on his gloves, already excited for the ride to campus. There’s a reason he chose accommodation so far from the university, and it wasn’t just because it was cheaper. 

“Are we taking the back road?” Woojin asks, slipping his helmet over his head, and Chan hesitates putting his own helmet on so he can check his phone. 10:36am. 

“Yeah we’re taking the back road, we have time.”

Woojin nods and Chan puts his phone back into his pocket and puts his helmet on, a shiny black one with bright red stripes to match his bike. 

“Let’s go then!” Woojin yells, having to talk loudly to combat the helmets and the continuous growling of the bikes, and Chan nods in response, gesturing for Woojin to lead the way, which he does. The older male pulls out and Chan follows, anticipating the feeling of the wind whipping his clothes and the ( _technically_ illegal) speeds they could reach on the unused back roads.

* * *

“I can’t believe my name is still ‘Bitch’ in your phone.”

Everyone laughs at Hyunjin’s offended expression, except Minho who’s too busy trying to keep Hyunjin from snatching said phone out of his hand.

“It suits you” Minho says, grinning like a shark at Hyunjin’s offended squawk as he tries to bat the other’s hands away. 

“You said you would change it!” Hyunjin yells, almost hitting Changbin upside the head in his crazed haste to steal Minho’s phone and, change his name? Chan doesn’t know, but that sounds like the most likely reason the younger male wants it. 

“Hey watch it!” Changbin says loudly, shoving Hyunjin’s back as Hyunjin has managed to lean halfway out of his own seat, across Changbin, and still manage to reach Minho. Somehow it’s barely the most chaotic thing happening at the table, there’s eleven of them all-together, and Chan can see further down the table that Arin, Noah, Rain and Michelle are in a very heated debate about something, hands flying everywhere and attracting the attention of all the nearby tables. Chan can't quite make out exactly what it's about but he hears something along the lines of "boil water" and "milk," and decides not to question it.

Dave and Mateo are the only two that seem to not be bothered, both looking at something on Dave’s phone. From what it sounds like, making fun of a girl who's texted Mateo to ask him out. Chan isn’t too surprised about that, Mateo is gorgeous, something readily admitted by any member of the biker society, besides maybe Dave. He’s tall, about six foot, maybe a little shorter, with tanned skin and warm brown eyes, soft brown curled hair, and one of the most attractive smiles Chan’s ever seen. When they’d first met Chan had felt his heart do a small flutter, but hadn’t acted on it, and the crush died within a few months, thankfully. 

“Okay okay look I changed it” Minho’s voice snaps Chan out of his thoughts and he looks up from the nachos he’d been snacking on to observe the commotion. 

“I don’t believe you.”

“I did!” Minho yells, showing Hyunjin the phone screen, “see? Now it says _Whiney_ Bitch.”

“I literally hate you” Hyunjin says, but he doesn’t reach across the table to try and grab the phone again. 

“Suck my dick, bitchboy” is Minho’s response to that, making Changbin laugh loudly into his glass of water. 

“Challenge accepted” Hyunjin says with a wink in Minho’s direction, making Minho roll his eyes. 

Chan also half-rolls his eyes and shares a suffering look with Woojin. It’s no wonder Hyunjin is one of the quote-on-quote "playboys" of the university, he draws people to him like a magnet with his good looks, flirtatious nature, and charm. Despite Chan's warnings, or anyone's warnings really, Hyunjin very rarely says no to sex without good reason. It’s kind of his reputation at this point. Honestly, Chan worries for him sometimes, of course he does, but Hyunjin is happy with his life and always insists that he’s careful. Also, Chan isn’t his parent, so there is only so far he can push it. 

“Hey guys” comes a voice from behind Chan. 

“Hey Evan” everyone choruses, and Changbin scoots over so that the blonde boy can sit next to him, accompanied by a brunette girl none of them have seen before. 

“Who’s your friend?” Woojin asks, gesturing to the girl with a smile, which she returns, looking a little bit uncomfortable.

“This is Becca, my girlfriend” Evan clarifies, and everyone takes a minute to introduce themselves to her. When it’s Chan’s turn, she perks up and smiles at him.

“Are you Australian?” 

Chan nods, “yeah I am, I’m from Sydney.”

“Oh and Damien, I almost forgot, you left your pen in class again” Evan calls up the table, interrupting whatever Becca was about to say next, and throwing Minho said black pen as Minho quietly curses his forgetfulness to himself. 

“Thanks man” Minho says, catching and pocketing the pen. 

“Someone’s gonna steal that pen eventually” Changbin says and Minho gasps.

“No! Not my fifty-cent pen I got from Walmart! What _ever_ will I do? Thank you _so much_ for telling me Changbin, my very good friend who I cherish deeply, I will keep that in mind.”

“Shut the fuck up, Minho” Changbin says, though he’s smiling. 

“Wait” Becca says, pointing between Minho and Changbin, “I thought you said their names were Damien and Jack, but you called each other something different there.”

Minho and Changbin just blink at her, puzzled for a second before what she’s implying sinks in, obviously not used to people saying anything about it. 

“Oh that’s just their thing babe, probably should have told you that, it can be confusing at first” Evan explains, “they all just use their Korean names with each other for some reason.”

Her face screws up a little, but not in disgust, just confusion. “Why though?”

“Just for the meme” Minho says with a shrug, “you can just call us by our English names though since it’s easier, so I’m Damien” he points at Changbin “that’s Jack”, then Woojin “that’s Matthew,” then Hyunjin “that’s Sam,” and finally Chan “and that’s Christopher, or Chris if you prefer. Just ignore what we call each other, it’s easier.”

Becca still seems confused but lets it drop, engaging Evan in some conversation about some restaurant that Chan doesn’t care to remember. It’s always weird trying to explain the name thing to newcomers, they’ve all been doing it for so long now it's just natural for them, even if it makes little to no sense. 

“Oh my god look it’s that new student everyone’s talking about!” Arin says, prompting everyone to turn around and see who the hell he’s talking about. 

The sight that greets Chan’s eyes is not one he was expecting. 

It’s immediately obvious who Arin is talking about, and why everyone is apparently talking about them. In the queue for the bar is a trio of young men, probably freshmen looking at them, Chan doubts they’re third years since he’s sure he would have seen them by now, and they’re not in second year, _he’s_ in second year and again, he’s never seen them before. Of course they could be from a different campus, aka, not the arts and humanities campus, but there’s no reason why they would travel all the way from the other campus’ just to go to The Gallery, the food isn’t _that_ good. So they must be freshmen. However, it’s one member of the group that sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the other two. And the reason for the eye-catching presence is just a lot of _pink_. 

The person seems to be male, and is very slender, Asian, same as his two friends, with fluffy-looking blonde hair and a cute face. He’s wearing a white-pink crop top and a pair of light blue denim booty shorts, revealing a lot of tan skin; white socks poke out of the top of a pair of baby pink high-top converse, and if Chan looks hard enough, a thin and equally pink choker resides snugly around the guy’s neck. Covering the crop top is what looks like a bubblegum pink bomber jacket, left open at the front, seen when the guy turns to talk to one of his friends.

It’s not the _weirdest_ thing Chan’s seen in The Gallery – cut to that one guy dressed up as an eggplant and giving out condoms that one time – but it’s still really eye-catching and not something he really expected to see today. 

“That’s a very interesting wardrobe selection” Becca says, sounding heavily surprised. 

“I think it looks bomb” Minho says with a shrug, a bit ironic considering he’s wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a black-shirt with his _also_ black leather jacket draped over his shoulders, his black and white half-sleeve tattoos on full display. “Suits him.”

And that’s the thing, it’s eye-catching, but it doesn’t look bad, not at all, for all intents and purposes the guy is rocking it. 

“Yeah if dressing like a girl can be considered bomb” Dave snorts, making air quotes around the word ‘bomb’. “I’m surprised they let him through the doors.”

“Dude, don’t be a dick” Hyunjin says, and Dave just shrugs in response. 

“Does anyone know who he is?” Noah asks from further down the table, twisted awkwardly in their seat so they can see. 

“I’ve heard people talking about him but I dunno anything else about it” Rain says, their head resting on Noah’s shoulder, clearly still feeling the effects from their celebration last night after the swimming competition. 

“His name’s Peter” Hyunjin says, making everyone turn to look at him. 

“How do you know that?” Changbin asks, stabbing a forkful of fries and eating it. 

Hyunjin shrugs, “he’s in my art class, just joined this uni about a week ago I think, transferred from some other uni whose name I don’t remember.”

“Gee, I wonder why, need some confidence to walk around looking like that” Dave says and Mateo laughs. “Oh look he’s coming over, everyone act cool.”

Everyone abruptly realises that they’re all staring at the guy, and have been for a while now, and hastily turn back in their seats to pretend they weren’t as the guy and his two friends head closer towards them.

“Looks like they’re looking for a table” Evan says before someone can ask, casually draping his arm over Becca’s shoulders. 

“Hey guys watch this” Dave says suddenly, “let’s see if Pinky is as confident after this.”

Before anyone can stop him, Dave picks up a half-full bottle of water, the cap screwed on, and _throws_ it straight at the poor guy’s back. The table immediately begins to erupt in anger at Dave or to warn the freshm-Peter, before the bottle is able to hit him, but before they can, the most _unexpected_ thing happens. 

Peter, just before the bottle hits him, turns around and _grabs_ said bottle with his free hand, much to the shock of his two friends, but also everyone at the table, causing them all to shut up at the display of skill. 

After a second, Peter throws the water bottle in the nearby bin and gives the group a big smile, revealing his squirrel-like cheeks and the fact that his two front teeth are ever so slightly larger than the average. 

“Word of advice” he says, his voice holding a decently strong American accent, but also something else Chan can’t place, “maybe don’t announce what you’re going to do to someone before you do it, you lose the element of surprise.” 

And with that, he flips Dave off and walks away, his two friends following close behind him, their voices raised, but Chan can’t quite make out what they’re saying. 

Everyone at the table seems to take a second to process what just happened before Arin and Evan erupt in laughter, quickly followed by everyone else, everyone except Dave and Mateo. 

“Oh my god did you see that?”

“That was so fucking badass what the fuck?”

“What reflexes though, damn.”

“Dave you got fucking _destroyed_ that was so funny.”

“He deserved it though.”

“Shut up, Michelle.”

“You did though.”

Chan doesn’t say anything, too busy looking at where Peter and his friends disappeared, he still can’t quite wrap his head around what just happened. He’s shocked, obviously, but he’s also in awe, the composure and skill Peter displayed was truly impressive, and not something Chan was thinking he'd see today. 

“Anyway, that was fun but I have class” Noah says, getting up and pulling on their leather jacket. 

“I’ll walk you” Rain says immediately, “see you guys!”

Everyone chimes in with their own goodbyes as Noah takes Rain’s hand and they walk out of The Gallery and to the math campus, Noah’s the only one who studies off campus so they always have to leave a little earlier than everyone else.

“Yeah I’m gonna go too” Minho says, checking his phone, “I have class in a couple hours but I need to go shopping for a new belt since mine is dying.”

“Ooo can I come?” Hyunjin asks, excited.

“Yeah sure.”

“Oh can I come too?” Michelle speaks up, “I forgot I need more hairspray” she says with a gesture at her afro, and Minho says sure again before they all start getting ready to head out. 

“If everyone is leaving I might go to the library early then” Arin says. 

After a lot of shuffling and goodbyes, half the group leaves, Chan looks at Woojin and sees his roommate is still eating, and deducts that they’ll probably leave once he’s finished. To pass the time, he pulls out his phone and begins to check his notifications, though it's only peaceful for a mere few minutes before he's distracted by someone sitting next to him. 

“Hey, Chris” Dave says, and Chan looks up to meet Dave’s hazel eyes.

“Yeah?”

“You a gambling man?”

“No?” Chan says, confused.

“Wanna make a bet?” Dave continues, unbothered.

“Not really, sorry mate.” Chan has a bad feeling about this.

Dave points to the door, Chan follows his line of sight for a second before moving his gaze back to the other male. “You know that guy from before, Pinky?”

“Peter?” Chan asks, and Dave waves a hand. 

“Yeah him, whatever. What would it take for you to take his virginity?”

For a second, Chan isn’t sure he’s heard Dave right, and just stares dumbly at the other while his brain catches up with the words spoken to him. 

“What the _fuck_ , why would you even ask that?”

“Come on man!” Dave says, smiling, “you chicken? I dare you to take the guys v-card, I bet it'll be easy.”

Chan can barely believe what he’s hearing right now, he looks up for help but the only people near him are Changbin, Evan and Woojin, all of whom are otherwise engaged. Evan and Woojin in conversation, by Becca and Mateo respectively, and Changbin is on his phone, one earphone in so he can listen to music, Dave isn’t being loud enough to draw their attention. 

“Okay I need you to listen to me” Chan says, turning and fully facing Dave now, “hell no. You don’t just do that kind of thing to someone, and god knows why you would pick me, I would never do- I would literally _never_ do something like that.”

For a second, Dave looks a little annoyed, but the expression disappears very soon afterwards, replaced with a smile, though this one is noticeably different to the last, a lot more malicious. Yeah, Chan really doesn’t have a good feeling about this. 

“Do it, or I’ll release that photo of you crashing that training bike.”

Chan glares at him, “do it then, I would much rather you do that than force me to... you know.”

Chan’s so angry. He’s not an angry person usually, in fact, it takes a lot to get him even remotely annoyed, but this is crossing a line, and the fact Dave’s treating this as some dumb joke is disgusting and makes Chan’s stomach twist. He goes to turn on his phone again, to ignore Dave, or maybe he was going to pick up his jacket so he could leave. Whatever it was, he’s stopped by Dave putting a hand on his shoulder, and the next words out of the other male’s mouth.

“Yeah okay, you don’t care about that, but you do care about your friends right?”

A sinking feeling appears in Chan’s stomach. “What are you getting at?”

“Do you remember-” Dave starts, letting go of Chan’s shoulder, folding his arms over his chest and leaning back in his seat, a smug smile spreading over his face, “-the party last year? The one at that one senior’s dorm for Halloween?”

For a moment, Chan is confused, but as he remembers the party, the sinking feeling gets twice as strong and a wave of cold horror washes over him, leaving him frozen. If Dave is implying what Chan thinks he’s implying, then this situation went from stupid to deadly serious. 

Dave must see the realisation blooming in Chan’s eyes, because he grows visibly excited. “Oh you do remember! That’s good, so you know that I’ll release the video of Jack if you don’t.”

At the mention of his English name, Changbin looks up and finally takes note of the situation, of how angry Chan looks, and pulls out his earphone. “What’s going on?”

Dave turns to him immediately, “remember the party last year, the Halloween one?”

Changbin stiffens as he remembers, eyes flicking between Chan and Dave repeatedly, “yeah.”

“Well Chris here is refusing to do something for me, so it looks like I’m going to have to release that video of you.”

Chan watches as Changbin’s hands tighten into fists, as his back straightens, his impressive arm muscles practically bulging with tension, and how his face goes five shades whiter. 

“We made an agreement that everyone would delete that video” Woojin speaks up, voice oddly cold, and goddamn is Woojin an intimidating sight when he’s angry. Beside him, Evan is also looking oddly pissed off, which is odd for the usually unbothered male, Becca just looks confused again.

“Yeah well, I didn’t” Dave says, still smiling, “I have a copy saved, and I’m going to post it _everywhere_ if Chan doesn’t accept my bet.” He says ‘Chan’ with a hard sneer in his voice. 

Dave’s always been a little weird, a little hostile, and honestly a little creepy, it’s so weird how quickly you can get used to something though until it’s staring you right in the face. Chan, as selfish as it is, just wishes it wasn’t directed at him. 

“You’re bluffing” Chan chokes out, desperate for it to be true.

“I could say ‘am I?’ or ‘maybe’ you know?” Dave says, leaning back on his chair so it’s balancing on the two back legs, and Chan in that moment realises how easy it would be to tip him over, “but I’m not going to kid you around, with one hundred percent seriousness, I have the video, Mateo can also vouch for me.” 

Chan can hear the honesty in his voice, he’s not joking, Dave’s a terrible liar anyway, always has been, this isn’t a lie. The illusion that Chan put up that this was all a joke shatters around him and Chan suddenly feels like he’s falling through an endless tunnel of black, with nothing to grab onto. He wants to say no, to tell Dave to just release the video, but it’s not his choice. 

Chan looks up at Changbin, who looks like he’s about to have a heart attack, the terror in his eyes is real and pure when he looks at Chan, and Chan can read so much from that gaze alone. Changbin wants him to accept the bet, to save himself, but he also doesn’t want Chan to have to go through that, he’s so conflicted. It looks like Chan’s going to have to make that decision for him then. There’s absolutely no fucking way he’s letting Dave do something like that to Changbin, his best friend. No, Chan would much rather take the bullet, as much as he hates it. 

“I’ll do it” he says, and the words sound alien even to his own ears, like he wasn’t expecting himself to agree.

“Chan no-” Woojin starts, but Dave cuts him off by clapping his hands loudly. 

“Oh this is going to be fucking hilarious!” He gets up and grabs his coat, Mateo following his lead. “It’s easy dude, seduce him or whatever, get his virginity, record it, and show me the video, and I’ll delete the video of Jack, sound good?”

Chan doesn’t respond, and Dave just shrugs and says a casual goodbye, leaving with Mateo through the door to The Gallery. 

“What a fucking _asshole_ ” Evan says eventually, breaking the thick silence that had descended over the small group. 

“What video is he talking about babe?” Becca asks, and Evan’s eyes snap to her, as if remembering for the first time that she’s here. 

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. Look, we should go, I think these guys need to talk in private, okay?”

Evan and Becca leave, but Chan can’t even bring himself to say goodbye, to react when Evan tells him that he feels sorry for him and that he’ll help any way he can. He just sits there, contemplating the weight of what he’s just accepted.

“Chan I’m so fucking sorry-” Changbin says eventually, and his broken voice is what finally snaps Chan out of it, he looks up from the table and realises Changbin is crying. “-If I hadn’t have been so drunk during the party I would never have even thought abo-”

“It’s not your fault, Changbin” Chan says, his voice so very strained. “Don’t blame yourself okay?”

“We can’t even go to the police about it” Woojin speaks up, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. “What are we supposed to even say?”

“Yeah, no police, or uni officials” Changbin says quickly, some of that earlier panic returning, “if they get involved I might as well drop out right here and now.”

“So we’re _fucked_ ” Chan snaps, burying his face in his hands, he feels so angry, so helpless, stuck between a rock and hard place. 

“He knows that” Woojin says, sounding so very very angry, concealed well, but not enough to hide it completely. “He knows that you won’t do it if you’re at stake, but you will for your best friend, it’s probably why he targeted you, Chan. And don’t apologise again Changbin, it’s not your fault, it’s Dave’s.” 

“So what do we do?” Changbin asks, looking between Chan and Woojin.

“There’s only one thing we can really do then” Woojin says, reaching an arm across the table to hold Chan’s arm, which Chan appreciates, it’s comforting, and grounding in a way. “You’re just going to have to go through with it, or at least figure something out. We can’t risk that video getting out.”


	2. Oh Dear Diary, I Met A Boy

Chan sees Peter around every so often for the next couple of weeks. In The Gallery, in the music building, on campus, the library, the local coffee place, and a couple of other places within the city as well. Though to be fair, it’s not exactly that hard to spot him considering what he wears; even if it’s just a glance out of the corner of his eye. But every time he sees him and that flash of pink that’s becoming too familiar too quickly, Chan feels a stone lodge in his stomach. 

He’s talked about it a lot to his friends, Woojin in-particular since he was there the day the stupid deal was made in the first place. Changbin was as well obviously, but Changbin already feels bad enough about the video even existing, and Chan doesn’t like bringing it up too often to him since, in Chan’s opinion, it doesn’t really do anything besides make his friend even more upset. Woojin however, while upset about the whole situation in general, is a very calming person and gives good, realistic advice, not just telling Chan that it’s ‘going to be okay’ or that ‘he can do it’. As much as Chan loves his friends, that kind of advice or encouragement isn’t really that helpful to him right now, though he does appreciate the sentiment behind it. 

They all took it about as well as expected. Minho and Hyunjin were furious with Dave, to the point where Woojin had to physically hold Minho back from going off to ‘beat Dave’s ass’ for a good five minutes before he calmed down. Hyunjin was less physically inclined, but he was still obviously pissed off, and kept ranting about how it was ‘bullshit’ and ‘such a dick move’, Minho nodding in agreement behind him. It also took quite a bit persuading to tell Jeongin - Hyunjin’s little brother - about the situation, who’s still in sixth form and trying to get the grades to join the university next year. Chan loves Jeongin, they all do, and although Hyunjin, being the protective older brother he is, wasn’t too excited about involving Jeongin in the whole Dave mess, Woojin had argued that Jeongin was nearing eighteen, and definitely mature enough to handle it, much to Hyunjin’s displeasure. So he had acquiesced, and Jeongin had been rightfully upset about the bet as well. Chan did his best to reassure the younger that he would be okay, however, the words rang hollow even to his own ears.

Eventually, once they had all calmed down sufficiently enough to talk about it properly, they had decided, although it was a super shitty move, that _not_ telling Peter about the plan was probably the best course of action. None of them knew Peter well enough to say how he would react, and while he could be willing to help Chan out, it was unlikely, and not a risk that any of them particularly wanted to take. Minho, after calming down, had tried to make light of the situation, as was in his nature, and it worked to a degree despite the general suckiness of the whole thing. Regardless though, the bet and the weight of what he had to do weighed heavily on him, which definitely contributed to the whole not-talking-to-Peter thing.

It’s hard, Chan’s not in any particular hurry to talk to the guy considering what he knows he has to do, but it’s for that reason exactly that he  _ needs _ to talk to him. It’s Changbin’s neck on the line here, not his own, something that Dave is always keen to remind him. Dave’s also apparently keen to let Chan know that it’s been over two weeks and he should really start talking to the guy before he and Mateo have to intervene. 

Of course Chan knows it’s been a while, and that he’s seen Peter around plenty of times, the problem is, as he’s quick to tell Dave, that there hasn’t really been a good opportunity to do so. Whenever Chan has caught sight of Peter, the other male has always been with those two friends of his from that day in The Gallery. Chan doesn’t really have the confidence to approach the pink-clad student when he’s with them, if only to save face at the least. Still, he’s also not stupid enough to think that Dave is going to let him wait too much longer, which is why when Chan spots Peter walking down the street alone, he decides to finally take the chance.

* * *

Chan looks up from his phone, his text to Hyunjin long forgotten as he catches sight of the figure that has been haunting him for the past two weeks. He’s sitting on his bike in the car park outside the music building, having stayed late to finish an assignment, which’s length was _complete_ bullshit considering that he’s only been back at university for four months and it wasn't even a final assessment. He already misses first year when his marks didn’t count towards his final grade. So it’s about 7pm, but considering it’s January and still winter, it’s already dark, the warm yellow of the street lights illuminating the car park and the sidewalk beside it. It’s on this exact sidewalk that Peter is walking, alone. Chan doesn’t really have the time to wonder what the other is doing out here without his friends, not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and drives out of the car park so he can pull up alongside the first year student. 

Surprised at the noise – Chan loves his bike like his child but it’s not exactly a quiet model – Peter pulls out one of his earphones and stops walking, giving Chan a quizzical look. It’s in that moment that Chan realises that, lit by the soft lights, Peter is really quite attractive in an oddly soft way, all big eyes and round cheeks. He also realises that, funnily enough, they’re both wearing pretty much the same outfits as that day in The Gallery, albeit with a couple of changes. One being that Peter is wearing a baby pink baseball cap with a little mint green alien head on the front, which even Chan can admit is very cute.

“If you’re trying to hassle me you’re doing a pretty terrible job.”

His voice is the same as that day in The Gallery too, down to the edge of amusement cutting through the heavy sarcasm. It surprises Chan out of his little thought train, and he flounders for a decent response.

“I, uh, um, I wasn’t- I wasn’t going to uh, hassle you, or anything.”

_ Ah, eloquent as always Chan, well done.  _

Peter shoots him a look Chan can’t really decipher, but doesn’t start walking away, which Chan counts as a success because it’s better for his self-esteem. 

“Then why the hold up? You need something?” Peter continues, scanning Chan with his eyes, as well as his bike. He looks so untrusting, like he’s ready to just start walking away should Chan say the wrong thing. Chan honestly can’t say he doesn’t deserve the treatment.

“Uh, I- I was” _fuck Chan stop blabbering and spit it out!_ “-I was just uh, wondering if you wanted a lift? Like, to your house.”

Clearly puzzled, Peter raises an eyebrow at him. He turns his body so he’s more facing the bike and Chan rather than down the street where he was heading previously, and also takes out his other earphone, slipping them both into the pocket of his pink bomber jacket. 

“From you?”

Chan’s a little taken aback by the question but nods in confirmation. 

Peter crosses his arms over his chest and shifts his weight onto his left hip, and as he does so, Chan realises that even his nails are pink, and much longer than his own, not that that’s saying much. 

“You’re aware that I  _ saw _ you there that day, right? When your little friend decided it would be fun to throw a water bottle at my back.”

Chan’s heart sinks a little and he’s quick to try and rectify the situation. God how he wishes he could just tell Peter about the bet, but he also not stupid, and knows that would probably be the absolute worst thing to bring up right now.

“Dave’s a douche, literally none of us were okay with him doing that” Chan clarifies, but then pauses, “well, maybe Mateo, but the rest of us were horrified. I actually caught up with you now because I wanted to apologise for the whole thing, I’ve seen you around a couple of times but it’s never been a good time, so I took the opportunity when I saw you here. That’s why I’m offering the ride.”

Hey it’s not a  _ lie _ per say, it’s just not the whole truth, that counts right?

God, Chan feels like the worst human being alive right now.

Some of the sharpness leaves Peter’s eyes, allowing Chan to see a lightness in them he didn’t notice before. And honestly? How can someone’s eyes be so full of life and emotion? It’s not really helping to make Chan feel any better, not that he really deserves such a luxury. 

“Look” he continues, just for good measure, “it’s dark and it would make me feel better if I knew you got home safe, plus I owe you one, I should have stopped Dave before he was able to throw the stupid bottle.”

There’s a moment of silence as Peter is clearly considering the offer. A couple of times his eyes move between the bike, Chan, and the empty street, before finally landing on Chan and staying there. His posture sags a little bit and he drops his arms back down to his sides. 

“Alright, but know that if this is some scheme to kidnap me or something, I’ll send all your bikes to the scrapyard to be crushed.”

Despite the threat, Peter gives Chan a little smile and something in Chan warms seeing it, making him return it. Without waiting for a response, Peter walks to the back of the bike and swings himself up and onto it, taking Chan off-guard. 

“I live in the student accommodation flats, in the blue sector, you can drop me off there.”

It takes Chan a second to remember where that is, but once he does he nods and slips his helmet on. He doesn’t have a spare for Peter since he wasn’t anticipating giving someone a ride today, but it’s a fairly short drive and the roads are quiet, so it should be fine as long as a cop doesn’t see them.

“I know where that is, hold onto something” Chan says, starting the bike up again. Luck must be on his side tonight because it starts up just fine, the barest whine audible at the end that Chan’s pretty sure only he would be able to hear since he knows the bike so well. 

He’s about to pull out onto the road when the sensation of slender arms around his torso, and the feeling of Peter’s stomach pressing flush against his back makes him tense out of shock. Over the low rumble of the bike, Chan swears he hears a short laugh come from behind him. He’s suddenly very glad that Peter is behind him and so can’t see his blush. He repeats the mantra in his head that he's just shocked and didn't expect Peter to be so forward, and that's the only reason he's blushing, until he at least somewhat believes it.

As promised, Chan drives Peter to the blue block of student flats, stopping the bike in front of the gate, he can’t get him or his bike in, not without a key. The ride had been spent in silence, apart from the couple of small noises Peter had made when the bike took a particularly sharp corner. It had been vaguely hard to concentrate with the feeling of Peter so close to him, with the way his arms would tighten around Chan’s stomach every time he accelerated, with the way his cheek kept firmly pressed in-between his shoulder blades to avoid the wind. 

“We’re here” Chan says, knocking the engine off and quickly putting the kickstand up with his foot, so they don’t fall over, before removing his helmet and shaking out his hair. 

“I noticed” Peter says in response, though it sounds more amused than annoyed. As he says it, he lets go of Chan’s torso and leans backward, looking at the building, though he doesn’t get off immediately. “Looks like the scrap yard isn’t going to be receiving any motorbikes tonight.”

“Tonight?” Chan asks, turning his head around so he can watch as Peter gets off the bike, a little unsteady but mostly fine. It’s clear that he hasn’t had much, if any, experience with riding a motorcycle before. 

Peter laughs at Chan’s tone and Chan smiles, he has a nice laugh, a little loud and brash but so full of emotion and genuine amusement it’s not annoying to listen to.

“Do you have a way of getting in?”

Instead of responding verbally, Peter takes out a small set of keys from his pocket and jangles them in front of his face, making Chan give an “ah” noise and causing Peter to smile.

“Thanks for the ride by the way” Peter says suddenly, putting his keys back into his pocket. “You really didn’t have to; I didn’t blame you for the whole bottle incident to begin with.”

He didn’t? Huh.

“No problem” Chan says with a smile, “I was happy to, regardless if you blamed me or not. Let’s be real, you deserved an apology off someone, because it’s definitely not going to be Dave.”

“He sounds like a delightful person” Peter says, voice practically dripping with sarcasm, and Chan huffs a short laugh. “Anyway, am I going to get to know your name before I head inside then?” 

Chan pauses, realising that they never did introduce themselves properly.

“Oh, uh yeah, it’s Christopher, or Chan.”

Peter raises an eyebrow, a small smile on his face, “or Chan?”

Chan can feel the tips of his ears get warmer and knows that he’s bushing (again), thankfully Peter doesn’t say anything about it, just keeps looking at Chan and waiting for an answer. 

“Uh, yeah, it’s my Korean name, my friends do this thing where we all use our Korean names instead of our English ones for some reason, I don’t remember why, it’s just a thing now, like an inside joke.”

Peter doesn’t seem put off by the explanation, instead he just looks kind of amused. 

“Fair enough” he says after a few seconds. “Well then, Christopher or Chan, I’m Peter,” he suddenly puts on a (fairly bad) Australian accent and grins, “ _ or Jisung _ . No one really calls me that though, not even my parents.”

Jisung. Chan likes that much better than Peter, seems to suit him more. It’s also a Korean name if Chan isn’t mistaken.

“Your Australian accent is terrible” Chan says, laughing, and Peter laughs as well, holding his hand up to his mouth to cover his smile, which Chan thinks is a shame because he has such a nice one. “But thank you. And if no one uses that name I might just have to start, be the first one you know.”

“No problem” Peter says, still smiling, “and if that’s what you want, go for it, I don’t mind either way.” He gives a small shrug. “Just know that you’ll be the first since my grandparents.”

“Well I do always like to be a trend-setter” Chan jokes, making Jisung laugh again. 

“Anyway, I should probably head inside since I haven’t eaten yet, it’s been nice talking to you though, Christopher or Chan” Jisung says, grinning. He goes to head inside when Chan remembers something and calls out to him. 

“Wait!”

Jisung stops.

“Can I, uh, can I get your phone number?” 

The question seems to take Jisung off-guard for a split second before he’s smiling again, though it’s a different smile to last time. He puts a hand on his hip and leans his weight into it. 

“Oh honey” he starts, voice full of exaggerated sympathy, “you’re cute. You can have my Facebook, it’s Peter Han, profile pic is of me so it should be easy to find.”

And with that, he turns and walks off down the road to the gate, not even checking if Chan actually even has a Facebook. He  _ does _ but that’s not the point. Still, the probably unintentional compliment has Chan blushing lightly (again????), it’s been a long time since anyone called him cute, sarcastically or not. 

When Jisung has disappeared into the block of flats, Chan takes out his phone and opens up his Facebook, searching for ‘Peter Han’ in the search bar. Jisung is the second result, shown by the profile pic, as Jisung said it would, and Chan quickly sends a friend request before putting his phone back into his pocket. He slips on his helmet, puts the kickstand up, starts his bike, and begins the drive back to his apartment.

* * *

It only takes a couple of days for Chan to send the first message, a simple ‘hey’ and nothing else. To his amusement, the first thing Jisung does is change the chat colour to pink, which does not surprise him in the slightest, before responding. Somehow the conversation goes from talking about that night, to arranging to meet up for coffee the next day. Chan has a seminar a couple of hours after the chosen meet-up time, but Jisung assures him that it’s fine, that they’re only meeting up for coffee and it shouldn’t take that long. 

Of course, the first thing Chan does is message the group chat. Not his sports society one, or even the biker society one, which he’s recently been avoiding steadily since Dave is still in there. Instead, he goes to the group chat with his friends, aptly named ‘Korea’s Gucci Gang’ (blame Minho), consisting of himself, Woojin, Minho, Hyunjin, Changbin and Jeongin.

**-Korea’s Gucci Gang-**

**Aussieaussieaussie:** Peter agreed to go get coffee with me tomorrow.

**Aussieboo:** !!!!

**Mama bear:** Are you sure you’ll be okay?

**Aussieaussieaussie:** Yeah I’ll be fine

**MinHOE:** remember to flirt!!!!

**Aussieboo:** Not helping Mingo lol

**MinHOE:** M I N G O I’M YELLLING ALKSJDASKDJFB

**Aussieboo:** wlodfujqalsdjfdekfj wHOOPS

**Bab:** Like a Minho mango XDDD

**MinHOE:** i would be the BEST looking mango there ever was lets be real

**Mama bear:** Are you all really gonna do this right now? Chan’s suffering.

**Changbean:** Sorry abt that

**Aussieaussieaussie:** No don’t worry about it! And Woojin I don’t mind, takes my mind off it

**Mama bear:** If youre sure

**MinHOE:** yeah the whole situation is horrible but u gotta joke abt it yaknow?

**Bab:** That seems like terrible advice…

**MinHOE:** shut up Jeongin no one asked u    
**MinHOE:** jk ily uwu

**Bab:** uwu

* * *

The coffee shop Jisung chose is a small little café, tucked away in a corner of the campus Chan’s never really paid attention to before. It's cosy, and a little busy, but they both manage to find a table fairly easily. Funnily enough, neither of them get coffee, Chan because he doesn’t really drink it, and Jisung because he said he wanted a milkshake instead, and most coffees are too bitter for him. So they sit there in a little table booth, Jisung with a glass of strawberry milkshake, and Chan with a cup of iced tea, since it was a warm day, too warm for coffee in his opinion. 

“I’m surprised you don’t hold it against me.”

Jisung raises a perfectly styled eyebrow at him. 

“I already told you, I’m not stupid, I know it was Dave or whatever his name was.”

Trying to hide the light, warm flush that came with his embarrassment, Chan leans back and crosses one of his legs over the other underneath the table, his left ankle resting on his right knee. “Yeah I know, I just wanna make sure you know?”

For what it’s worth, Jisung does lighten up a little at that and gives Chan a small, reassuring smile. “Well be sure, you have nothing to be sorry about if it wasn’t you who threw the bottle.”

“I guess so” Chan responds with a small smile of his own, relieved, before he remembers something he was meant to ask the night they met. “Oh! I was actually meant to talk to you about that!”

“About what?”

“The bottle, how did you catch it?” Chan clarifies.

Jisung picks one of the strawberries off of his milkshake and eats it before responding, and when he does, he sounds a little sheepish almost.

“Well, like I said before, I obviously heard him saying he was gonna do something, then Felix tapped my arm and told me someone was aiming something at me. From then it was actually kinda easy to see his reflection in my phone screen.” He smiles and rubs the back of his neck, “not gonna lie I wasn’t  _ actually _ expecting to catch it, especially not as smoothly as it ended up being. I was originally just gonna try and knock it away, but honestly, I’m really happy with how it happened because not only did I feel like a fucking badass, your faces were all  _ hilarious. _ God, I wish I had taken a picture of them.”

Chan laughs, his head tilting back as his eyes close on their own. 

“That’s awesome, I just assumed you were like Spiderman and had amazing reflexes or something, but hearing that you caught it on accident is even better.”

Jisung laughs as well, “it’s not the kinda thing I could do again if I tried.”

There’s a minute or so of relative quiet as they enjoy their drinks, but even though they barely know one another, it’s surprisingly not that uncomfortable, which Chan can appreciate. He’s never really been the type of person to try and fill the silence if it wasn’t necessary, and from what it seems, Jisung isn’t one of those people either.

“So what were you doing out so late?” Chan asks after he’s taken a swig of his tea. 

“The night you offered me a ride?” Jisung asks as he looks up, and Chan nods.

“I forgot my jacket in one of the rooms after my lecture, so I headed over to grab it after I was finished in the workshop.”

“The art workshop?”

“Yeah.”

“Wait, so why were you in the music building for a lecture then?”

Jisung gives him a look and grins, leaning back in his seat as he does so. “I do music too, I’m doing a dual degree, music and art.”

Chan’s a little taken aback by that, something that Jisung clearly sees if his small laugh is anything to go by. “Wow, that’s really impressive, it sounds like a lot of work.”

Jisung shrugs drinks a mouthful of his milkshake. “It’s not as hard as a double major, which is two degrees, obviously. Since it’s a dual degree it means that some of my modules are cut out, so I do half the music modules and half the art ones instead of the full course for either.”

“Ah” Chan says in acknowledgement, “that makes more sense, still, it sounds like a lot of work. Is art hard? Like is it a lot of stuff?”

“It’s a lot right now since I’m doing catch-up, but same as music.”

That gives Chan pause. “Wait what do you mean catch-up?”

“You don’t know?” Jisung asks, eyes quickly scanning Chan’s face for any sign he’s messing around. When it must become clear that he’s not, only then does Jisung continue. “I only just this uni this month, I was a late arrival.”

Chan’s both surprised to hear that, but also not surprised at all, which is definitely a weird combination to feel. On the one hand he’s surprised since he didn’t think that was the case, because term started in September, and with it now being January, that means that Jisung was three to four months late joining their school, which was probably a hell of a lot of work to catch up on. Heck, Chan didn’t know you  _ could _ join a university that late. At the same time though, he’s not surprised, both Arin and Hyunjin had said he was new, Chan just didn't expect him to be _that_ new. He's also not surprised because if Jisung had joined in September with the rest of them, then Chan would have heard about him a lot sooner than he did, considering how he dresses. 

Speaking of. Jisung’s wearing a soft-looking millennial pink turtleneck, a pair of light blue denim skinny jeans, baby pink timberland boots, and a thick black choker with a rose gold tag hanging off the front. At his feet lies the backpack he was wearing when they met up and came into the café, pink of course, and decorated with an embroidered mint green alien head, the same one on the cap Jisung was wearing the night he drove him home.

He looks great. 

Chan’s worried about how great he thinks it looks. 

“I just do music” Chan says, a beat too late, but Jisung doesn’t seem to notice. “I’m in my second year now. Though I’m in a bunch of sports clubs so I can be fairly busy.”

“Sports clubs?” Jisung asks, head tilted slightly to the side.

“Yeah. I’m in the general sports society, which only started up this year actually, and we do a variety of different sports, so it’s kinda like PE but a lot more chill. And then I’m on the university swim team, we just won a big competition against our rivals the day before I first saw you in The Gallery actually.”

“Damn, congrats” Jisung says, and he sounds genuinely impressed. “I haven’t really done a lot of swimming, I  _ can  _ swim, I’m just not too confident with it unfortunately.”

Surprised to hear that, Chan blinks, “oh, well my dad owns a pool so you can come round at any time and maybe do some lessons if you want? I help out there sometimes in the holiday if I'm not busy with assignments or whatever.”

Jisung looks at him for a second before smiling, a small glint in his eyes, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chan doesn’t know why he feels a little flustered at that, but he does. “Uh, yeah, I almost did a sports science degree but I changed my mind and did music instead, like I said before.” Wow. Truly the smoothest talker in existence huh? Good christ.

Jisung nods and swallows the mouthful of milkshake he was in the middle of drinking, “yeah I’ve seen you in the music building a couple of times, so I figured.”

Chan sits up a little straighter at the casual remark, and when he sees Jisung eyeing the slight movement, lets a small, teasing grin rest on his face. “Oh? You’ve seen me around have you? Been looking out for me?”

Jisung lets out a quick bark of laughter and fixes Chan with his own grin. “You wish, you’re just an easy person to, you know-” he points his straw in Chan’s direction and waves it around a little, “-notice, all things considered.” And this time he laughs fully at the mock-offended expression Chan puts on. 

“Look who’s talking!” Chan says in response with a hand gesture towards Jisung’s outfit.

Jisung covers his mouth with his forearm as he laughs louder, drawing the attention of a couple of people sat near them, their eyes linger on Jisung’s outfit for a while before moving back to their own meals. Loathe as he is to admit it, Chan feels a sharp stab of embarrassment at being seen out with Jisung, but he lets Jisung’s loud, unburdened laughter soften it until it doesn’t cut anymore.

“Valid” Jisung says eventually, once he’s done laughing, and Chan shoots him a smile. 

They talk for a little bit longer after that, about school and some other trivial things, but it’s still nice. Eventually though, their time is up, and Chan has to get going to his seminar. So, almost a little unwillingly, they exit the café together, deciding to meet up some other time before parting ways. 

Chan watches Jisung walk off, watches as he gets stopped by a girl who compliments his choker, watches how Jisung turns to wave at him when he realises Chan is still standing there before turning around again and heading off towards his lecture building. 

Chan watches, and he stands there, trying to ignore the awful feeling he can sense building in his heart. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Group Chat Names
> 
> Aussieaussieaussie: Chan  
> MinHOE: Minho  
> Bab: Jeongin  
> Mama bear: Woojin  
> Changbean: Changbin  
> Aussieboo: Hyunjin


	3. Steal Me With A Kiss

“So what, you just… Hang out with him now? You’re like, friends or something?”

Chan looks away from his computer screen and immediately regrets it, hand coming up to massage his neck. Stupid university chairs with their lack of headrests. 

“What?” He asks eloquently. 

Hyunjin sighs and throws his head dramatically over the back of the chair, making Changbin look up from his own computer screen. He’s the only one not working, his workload not being as big as Changbin’s and his own, because he’s only in first year; so he sits with his feet propped up on the desk, on his phone, while the other two work on their weekly assignment. Chan’s just glad there’s no one else in the room because the cleaning lady had just been in to do the last clean of the evening and Chan doesn’t think she’d appreciate Hyunjin’s boots being up on the computer desk. 

“I said” Hyunjin says slowly and over-enunciated, “are you and Peter friends now? Cause you’ve been hanging out a bunch.”

Chan makes a face.

“I wouldn’t say it’s ‘a bunch’” he replies, making air quotes around the last two words, “we’ve been out for coffee a couple of times and I went with him to pick up a new binder for his paperwork, nothing too special.”

Hyunjin puts his phone on the desk and swings his legs down and back onto the floor so he can look at Chan more easily. “That’s more than three times so it counts as a bunch, just saying.”

Chan huffs a laugh and turns back to the screen, “whatever makes you happy, Hyunjin.”

“Dave isn’t giving you any issues about it is he?” Changbin asks, and Chan feels that familiar lodging in his stomach he always seems to get whenever Dave is now mentioned. He hasn’t exactly been super keen to talk about it with any of his friends – especially Changbin – but there’s not really anything he can do when he asked about it directly. 

“Not really, he messaged me the other night asking if I had started talking to Peter yet or if he would have to do something about it, and I said yeah, that we were hanging out. He didn’t say anything after that, but yesterday morning he said something about remembering to get the video.”

Changbin and Hyunjin’s faces accurately portray Chan’s feelings on the matter. 

“God he’s such a fucking freak” Changbin says, a heavy amount of bite in his voice, “I have no idea what he has against me or you but this is going way too far, I thought he would have called it off by now.”

Chan shrugs as he wheels his chair a little further away from the desk so he can face his friends fully. “I honestly haven’t a clue what he gets out of this, but he has to have a reason, this whole thing isn’t… It just isn’t a _thing_ people suddenly decide to do you know?”

“You would think” Changbin huffs, picking up his pen and twirling it around his fingers, a nervous tick he’s always had, it shows how bothered he is about the whole thing, Chan can’t blame him. 

“We can ponder Dave’s motives later” Hyunjin says loudly, noticing the tense, grey cloud that had settled over them as soon as Dave was mentioned. “At the end of the day we don’t know him and Mateo well enough to say why they’re doing this, and there’s no point running ourselves ragged thinking about it. Right now, I wanna talk about Peter, or Jisung, whichever.”

Chan blinks at the abrupt conversation change, but Hyunjin makes a good point and Chan doesn’t like talking about Dave any more than the rest of them, so he goes along with it. 

“What about him?”

Looking happy with the conversation change, Hyunjin smiles and leans back in his chair, “I just wanna know what he’s like, like do you enjoy hanging out with him or are you just doing it for the bet kinda thing.”

To his surprise, the words come to Chan way faster than he was expecting. 

“I mean I do have to do it for the bet, but honestly I think I just really enjoy hanging out with him. He’s a really fascinating personality, and he’s cool, we have fun together.”

“You should invite him to our table” Hyunjin says, and it takes Chan a second to comprehend what he’s talking about. 

“In The Gallery?”

“Yeah!” Hyunjin continues, “we’re meeting up with the squad next week right? On Wednesday, just invite him to hang out with us so we can all meet him.”

Chan thinks about it. “I would, but I dunno if he would want to? He hasn’t said anything about meeting you guys and you were kinda there when Dave threw the bottle at him.”

“Yeah but he knows we didn’t encourage him to do that” Changbin argues.

“I’ll ask” Chan settles on. “But if he says no, you’re not allowed to be mad about it.”

“Deal” Hyunjin says, looking mighty pleased with himself.

* * *

Despite what he told Hyunjin, Chan doesn’t actually ask Jisung about it the next time they see one another, but in his defence, it was a very quick meeting. Chan had been leaving his lecture with Woojin and they ran into Jisung in the corridor; they’d had a quick chat about music and Chan walked Jisung to his next class before heading off with Woojin to go buy some lunch. Not enough time to ask about Jisung meeting his friends. However, just enough time to organise another meet up. 

Which is why Chan finds himself at the beach with Jisung a couple of days later.

* * *

“It’s six in the evening, do you really need ice cream?” 

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response” Jisung says, not looking up at Chan as he fumbles to get the required amount of money out of his wallet. Chan had offered to pay, but Jisung had told him that he didn’t want him to and was happy to pay for his own food, which Chan was okay with. 

“I’m surprised they’re not shut yet” Chan comments absentmindedly, looking at the cute knick-knacks decorating the walls and counter, such as the big conch shell holding a bunch of plastic spoons. 

“They close at seven on weekends I think” Jisung responds, pulling out a handful of coins and counting through them, “but on weekdays I think they close at five.”

Chan makes a ‘huh’ noise and offers to hold Jisung’s wallet for him while he counts the coins, eventually pulling out the required four dollars and putting the rest back in his wallet. 

“What type and flavour can I get you?” The person at the counter asks with a tired smile. 

“Long day?” Jisung asks, and she chuckles and nods, “and I’ll have a triple flavour bowl, vanilla, strawberry cheesecake and raspberry sorbet please.”

“Alright, that’ll be four dollars” she says, and Jisung hands her the money and waits as she gets the ice cream. 

“You’re a bit of an ice cream fiend huh?” Chan asks, amused, and Jisung giggles shortly as he puts his wallet back in his pocket. 

“What can I say, I got a bit of sweet tooth.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve noticed.”

Jisung laughs again and this time Chan joins him, both of them thanking the lady when she hands them Jisung’s cup and wishing her a good night, which she returns. 

From there, they both make their way to the boardwalk, Jisung eating his ice cream as they go. They don’t actually make any conversation besides discussing the flavours Jisung chose, but again, Chan likes that about Jisung, that he doesn’t feel the need to fill the silence lest it be awkward. Eventually they make it to the pier, and with Chan following Jisung’s lead, they end up walking down it and sitting at the end, their legs hanging off the edge. 

“Want any?” Jisung asks, gesturing towards Chan with the tub of ice cream when the other just gives him a blank look. 

“Oh” Chan says, “yeah sure, thanks.”

He takes the offered spoon and takes a bit of the raspberry sorbet. He’s not the biggest fan of ice cream if he’s honest, but he does like some types. 

“It’s alright” he says, but before he can hand the tub and spoon back, Jisung’s telling him to try the strawberry cheesecake one. So he does.

“Oh, I like that one” Chan says, slightly surprised, and Jisung grins at him. 

“Yeah, that one’s my favourite, I like the little chunks of biscuit they put in.”

“It’s really good, reminds me of Ben and Jerry’s or something” Chan agrees, handing the items back to Jisung. He also makes a mental note to come back here and maybe get some for himself sometime. Maybe bring some of his friends, since he knows Jeongin would adore the cosy ice cream place, as well as all of it’s interesting flavours, the view off the pier is nice too. 

“The sky is pretty” Chan comments almost absentmindedly. The clouds are starting to turn an orangey-pink colour, the washed-out blue creating a contrasted -but not _overly_ contrasted- backdrop. 

“It is” Jisung says, “I like the pink.”

“That doesn’t surprise me” Chan says with a small laugh, and Jisung smiles again and gestures with his spoon towards his outfit. 

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that I like pink honestly.”

It’s really not, you’d have to be either colour-blind or stupid to not realise Jisung at least _liked_ the colour. This particular evening, Jisung had donned a baggy, pink sweater, his usual pair of blue denim booty shorts, pink converse high-tops, as well as some extra accessories. Chan had already expected a choker, this one black with a pink rose in the centre, but the round-lensed pink-glass fashion glasses are new, as well as the black fishnet stockings. And although Jisung does usually wear a subtle(ish) amount of makeup – something Chan realised after the first couple of meetings - it stands out especially right now. A soft pink eye-shadow with a cat-eye wing cutting through, shimmery cheeks, and dewy lips, though some of the lip gloss must have rubbed off with the ice cream. Chan’s glad his sister taught him about all that stuff, because he knows that if Jisung ever brings it up for whatever reason, he’ll have some idea of what’s happening. 

“What’s up?” Jisung suddenly asks, shaking Chan out of his thoughts. 

“What?”

Jisung smiles at him and bumps his shoulder with his own. “You’re staring.”

Chan can feel his cheeks heat up at being caught. “Oh” he says quickly, “I’m sorry.”

For what it’s worth, Jisung doesn’t look bothered at all, just laughing and turning back to his ice cream. “If you wanna ask something, you can, I’m not bothered.”

Chan wouldn’t usually say anything for fear of offending Jisung, but with such an open invitation, his curiosity eventually gets the better of him. Plus, Jisung doesn’t seem like the kind of person to get upset at the question, something obvious to Chan even though he really hasn’t known the other male for that long. 

“Not that it’s really any of my business, so feel free to not answer” Chan prefaces, just to be safe, “but why do you dress like that knowing that society is most likely gonna like, I dunno, bully you? Is that the right word for that?”

“Sounds about right” Jisung says, and his tone sounds casual enough that Chan, as he predicted, doesn’t think Jisung was bothered by the question. To be honest, it’s probably a question Jisung has gotten a lot over the years, or at least over the amount of time since he started dressing the way he does. 

“And to answer your question, quite frankly I don’t give a flying fuck what people think about me. At the end of the day nothing I’m doing impacts them in any way, and I _like_ dressing like this, so fuck em.”

Sometimes Chan wishes he had Jisung’s level of self-confidence.

“So how’d you figure it out?” Chan asks.

“Figure out what?”

“That you like dressing the way you do.” 

There’s a small moment of quiet as Jisung eats another spoonful of his ice cream, clearly thinking over how to best word his response, eyes staring somewhere past Chan, unseeing. 

“When I was younger” he eventually says, “I was teased for being gay, didn’t matter what I did, how much I tried to hide it or appear ‘normal’” putting heavy air quotes around ‘normal’, “they continued to no matter what. So, one day I got tired of it and just thought, fuck it, you know? And I just went to the extreme, went as gay as I possibly could just to prove a point. Never really went back after I figured out just how much I enjoyed it.” 

“Woah” Chan says, impressed. Not only did Jisung have to endure everything he went through just for his sexuality, he stood up in a way that could have made it so much worse, but that showed his self-love and dismissal of them. “That’s really interesting, and you never went back? Not even once?”

“Nope” Jisung says happily, popping the ‘p’, “it kinda made me have a revelation about myself. I realised that I actually did really like dressing like this, wearing a bit of makeup, expressing myself, you know? The fact that some people find it weird or whatever doesn’t bother me anymore, cause at the end of the day it’s what makes _me_ happy, and ultimately that’s the only person that matters.”

“That’s really inspiring” Chan says, bringing up one of his legs so he can rest his arm on his knee. “I mean it.”

Jisung’s eyes widen a little bit before he scoffs and rolls his eyes. “It wasn’t meant to be. The last thing I want is to get all pretentious-and-shit on you. But glad you thought so I guess.”

Chan laughs at that. “Nothing wrong with being a little pretentious sometimes.”

“Guess not” Jisung responds, shooting Chan a smile. 

From that point onwards, conversation ends up flowing really easily between the two, almost like there had been a small dam between them previously; an unspoken question just hanging in the air that both of them were waiting to be asked. They talk about fashion and makeup, and turns out Jisung _i_ _s_ a little bit impressed at Chan’s knowledge of products, and about university life and workload, before Chan decides that it's getting late, and that they should be heading back. 

Chan ends up dropping Jisung off so Jisung doesn’t have to get the bus, and this time he was prepared for it, bringing along his spare helmet. The ride is an easy and quiet one, with not much traffic being on the road, and again, Chan is thankful for both his helmet and the fact Jisung is behind him, because he once again blushes at Jisung’s close proximity to him. _Also_ , Chan could have sworn that at some point during the ride, Jisung’s hand had pressed against his stomach and traced the outline of his abs, though by the time they pull up outside Jisung’s accommodation, he’s chalked it up to just being his imagination. 

“We’re here” Chan says, much like the first time he dropped Jisung off, and Jisung slowly lets go of Chan’s torso and pulls off his helmet. 

“I feel like my hair is all messed up” Jisung says, and Chan can hear the pout in his voice even as he pulls his own helmet off. He turns his neck so he can look at the younger and evaluates the situation. 

“Looks as great as it did before” Chan says with a smile, making Jisung laugh and run his hands through the blonde locks in an attempt to smooth out the practically non-existent mess. 

“Thanks.”

Jisung gives the helmet to Chan -who puts it in his bag- and climbs off the bike, a lot smoother than he had the first time despite not being on it too much since that point. He does a couple of stretches as Chan swings his leg around so he can sit side-saddle in order to talk face-to-face more easily.

“So, did you want to go out again at some point?” Chan asks. And it’s at that point that he remembers that he was supposed to ask Jisung about coming to their table, but Jisung’s already talking, so Hyunjin’s questions is going to have to wait just a little longer.

“I can think of a couple of other places I wanna go, yeah.” Jisung says with a grin, “just depends on when you’re busy.”

“I can just text you” Chan says, waving a hand flippantly, “see about where you wanna go and how long it’ll take.” Oh yeah, they had also ended up exchanging numbers, much to Chan’s amusement considering how Jisung had reacted the first time he asked.

“Fair enough” Jisung responds.

“Actually, speaking of hanging out” Chan says, making Jisung look at him curiously, “One of my friends wanted me to ask you if you wanted to hang out with us next Wednesday for lunch?”

“Oh? Your great and mighty friends hath deemed me worthy of their presence?” Jisung jokes, making Chan laugh, but he can see some of the edge appear in Jisung’s eyes, the same edge they held when Chan first approached him that one night. Distrust. 

“It won’t be the whole biker society, just me and my other Korean friends, ‘Korea’s Gucci Gang’, as Minho calls it.”

That does get a laugh out of Jisung, and the edge fades from his eyes, making Chan smile at him. 

“Well if you’re all Korean I might bring my friends over as well, since they’re Korean too.” 

That surprises Chan a bit, “wait, really?” 

Jisung nods, still smiling, “yeah, I mean, not nationally obviously, but ethnically. So can-slash-should I bring them along with me?”

Honestly, Chan wasn’t really expecting for Jisung to say ‘yes’ in the first place, never mind want to bring more people to their little get-together. And if Jisung’s friends really want to come along, or even just agree to coming along, Chan’s sure the gang wouldn’t have any problem with them.

“Yeah that’ll be totally fine, I’ll let the guys know we’re on for next Wednesday and text you the time.”

“Cool” Jisung says, “I look forward to meeting them all properly.”

“They’ll be looking forward to meeting you as well, and I’m excited to meet your friends too.” Chan says, and Jisung smiles at him, looking positively glowing in the dwindling daylight. 

And then, before Chan can even comprehend what’s happening, Jisung is right in front of his face, grabbing the front of his leather jacket, and kissing him. His lips still taste sweet, an after-effect from the ice cream no doubt, and they’re a little chilly, though that probably has more to do with the ride over rather than the ice cream by this point. 

After a couple of seconds, ‘ _too soon’_ a voice inside Chan’s head whispers, Jisung is pulling back and looking at him with a small grin. Suddenly, before he can say anything, Jisung uses the hand that’s still holding onto the front Chan’s jacket to push him back a little, and Chan is honestly to shell-shocked to do anything about it.

“I’m looking forward to hanging out again” Jisung says, and with a wink, turns around and goes inside his building without looking back once.

For a moment, Chan just sits there, trying to wrap his head around what just happened. And after a few minutes, he just laughs quietly to himself as he swings his leg back over the saddle of his bike and pulls his helmet on. He can’t help but shake his head in just complete awe of Jisung Han, before driving off.


	4. Baby, Here I Come

The next few days feel like a bit of a dream. Chan and Jisung go from, well, whatever they were doing before, to something similar, but at the same time entirely new. Hangouts are mostly the same, but touches linger, smiles are a little flirtier, and whenever they’re alone, Jisung seems to always find time to drag Chan into a kiss; hands tangled in his hair, pressed into his chest, on his hips, back, shoulders, neck. 

It’s intoxicating. 

Chan wants more, but he knows what more means. 

And that worries him. 

They end up having to push the meeting back until a Sunday, as Changbin’s parents had decided they weren’t satisfied with their already-overachieving son, and determined that he would stay home on Wednesday to study. As pissed as Changbin was about it, he doesn’t yet have it in him to tell his parents exactly what he thinks of their overbearing attitudes, and so just informed the group chat about it, where he received many condolences. Though, with the meeting moved to a Sunday, it means Jeongin can also join them, and Chan is happy to see the kid again. 

“Chan your phone dinged” Woojin says, pushing said phone along the picnic bench they’re currently sitting on. 

“Oh, thanks.” Chan says in response. He had heard the phone ding, but there’s no point in telling Woojin that, so he just picks it up and clicks the text notification, shielding his screen from the sun with his hand. 

The biker “gang” (and Jeongin), had decided that instead of going to The Gallery, since the weather was nice, they would just head out to a local field situated near a car park so that they had room for the bikes. There had been a couple of picnic benches around, so the group had just gone and dragged them closer together so that they had adequate sitting room that wasn’t the grass. Although, Minho and Hyunjin had then proceeded to sit on the grass, under the nearby tree, so Chan really has to question what was even the point. 

“Who is it?” Changbin asks, adjusting his baseball cap so the bridge covers his eyes. “God I should have brought a pair of shades.”

“Ha!” Minho and Hyunjin say at the same time, prompting them to look at one another with a ‘what the hell’ expression, and Chan resists the urge to laugh at them. It doesn’t last long, and they smile and high-five, probably celebrating the fact they both brought sunglasses with them. Nerds. 

“It’s Peter” Woojin says matter-of-factly, prompting Chan to shoot him a confused look. There’s no way Woojin was able to see his phone screen from over where he’s leaning on his bike. 

Seeing his look, Woojin makes a small gesture towards Chan’s face. “You only smile like that when Peter messages you.” He then grins, pleased with himself at the blush that immediately covers Chan’s cheeks.

The bastard. 

“God you’re so whipped, it’s so fucking funny” Minho says, laughing, and Chan flips him off before focusing on his phone again, which of course just makes everyone laugh harder. 

All of them, all bastards. 

“He’s on his way, apparently he can see us” Chan says, and that shuts everyone up as they all turn around and try to catch sight of him, which isn’t hard considering Jisung’s fashion. Hearing Hyunjin’s snort of laughter, Chan turns around for a second just in time to see Jeongin’s open-mouthed stare at Jisung. Oh yeah, apparently no one told him in depth how the other male likes to dress. 

Jisung’s wearing a dusty-pink lace-up hoodie and a pair of light blue booty shorts with distressed ends, knee-high pink-white socks, and his usual baby pink high-tops. He isn't wearing a hat or choker this time, but his round pink-lensed fashion glasses, and Chan catches sight of some pink glitter particles catching the sun's rays around his eyes and nose. It’s a far cry from his two friend’s jeans and t-shirts, but god does he look good. 

“God you’re all wearing black on a day like this?” Jisung says as soon as he’s within hearing distance, “how are you not dead?” 

“We are, but we die for the _aesthetic”_ Minho says, making the stereotypical Italian hand gesture. 

Jisung’s two friends laugh at that, one much louder than the other, and Chan realises it’s the first time he’s seen either of them up close. One of them is a light blonde, lighter than Chan or Jisung’s hair, a slim figure, bright eyes, and if Chan looks close enough, a smattering of freckles dusted across his nose. The other has soft brown hair, is taller than both Jisung and his other friend, skinnier too, with a more rectangular face and a nervous expression. 

“Alright everyone” Chan says, and they immediately all turn to look at him. He stands up and goes to stand next to Jisung, “this is Peter, Peter, uh, Peter’s friends, these are my friends, Matthew, Damien, Jack, Sam, and Tate, Sam’s little brother.” He points each of them out as he goes, and it’s endearing to see Jisung’s nose scrunch a little bit as he obviously tries to commit all the names to memory. 

“Oh nice! Another Aussie” Jisung’s blonde friend says, and Chan is shocked to hear a strong Australian accent in the boy’s (surprisingly deep) voice. 

Chan returns the smile the bright smile the boy is giving him, “yeah! Where are you from?”

“Sydney!”

“Oh damn! Same!” 

“Alright boys” Jisung says, sounding amused, “you can bond over Australia later, but introductions aren’t done yet.”

Chan immediately dials himself back and chuckles, looking at both of Jisung’s friends, “sorry about that mate, names Christopher, but you can call me Chris or Chan, whichever you want.”

“Felix” the blonde boy says, and Chan is once again by the contrast between his face and voice. 

“Lewis” the other one says with a significantly higher tone.

“Booooo!” Minho suddenly yells, drawing everyone’s surprised attention towards him. “You gotta give us your Korean names, it’s the law.”

Jisung rolls his eyes again and laughs, making a ‘don’t worry about it’ gesture to Lewis and Felix when they give him a confused look. “Remember, it's that thing they do apparently, I don’t know why.”

“Neither do we to be honest” Chan says sheepishly. 

“Well in that case” Jisung drawls, “I’m Jisung, nice to meet you all.” 

Everyone calls out their greetings, and Jisung gestures for Lewis to go next, which he does, looking a little bit awkward. 

“Uh, Seungmin” he says, and blinks in shock when Minho and Hyunjin cheer loudly. 

“Ignore them” Chan says, and looks at Felix, who looks conflicted. 

“I uh, I don’t exactly _have_ a Korean name, my parents never gave me one.” 

From behind him, Chan can hear Hyunjin and Minho talking in dramatic stage whispers to one another, and shoots Felix an apologetic look, who just chuckles and waves it off. 

“We’ve decided you can join the squad, but you’re on thin fucking ice” Minho says eventually, and Felix laughs and goes to sit near them. 

“Nice, I’m infiltrating.”

As stupid as it is, the whole situation is enough to break a lot of the ‘meeting new people’ tension, and they all laugh and start talking about how Felix has never been to Korea before. Lewis however still looks a tiny bit uncomfortable with the amount of new people, so Jisung gently takes his arm and leads him over to the picnic table so he can sit next to him, Chan following behind them. 

“Hey Jisung, Seungmin” Woojin asks, digging around in the cooler next to the table, “you drink beer?” 

Jisung makes a face at the same time Seungmin shakes his head, making Woojin chuckle. “We also have cider?”

“Do you have any fruity ones?” Jisung asks, leaning over the table to try and see inside the cooler.

“Uhhh, yeah we do, strawberry and lime.”

“Yessss, gimme!” Jisung says, taking the offered bottle from Woojin with a ‘thank you’. “Seungmin’ll have a regular cider.”

Seungmin shoots Jisung a look, who shrugs, but takes the cider from Woojin with a quiet thanks. 

“Oh are we drinking now? Nice” Minho says as he walks over and grabs a cider from the cooler, handing Changbin, Hyunjin and Chan a beer. “Felix! Cider or beer?” 

“Beer!” Felix calls back, and Minho grabs one and the bottle opener, walking back over to give it to him. 

“Hey don’t take the bottle opener, we only have one” Woojin says. 

“Too bad” Hyunjin sings as he uses it, “you’re gonna have to wait.”

Chan is about to make a remark when Jisung suddenly scoffs and rests the top of the neck of his bottle on the table, he hits it quickly, and the lid catches the end of the table and pops off. Maintaining direct eye contact with Hyunjin, Jisung takes the now opened bottle and downs a few mouthfuls before putting it back on the table and grinning. 

For a moment there’s silence, only to be broken by Changbin’s low “woah”.

“Chan I’m about to steal your boyfriend” Hyunjin says, voice almost a complete dead-pan. 

“He’s not my boyfriend” Chan says immediately over Jisung’s laughter. 

“Not yet” Jisung says with a wink as he drinks more out of his bottle, seemingly reveling in Chan’s sudden flustered state and everyone else’s cheers. 

From then conversation flows really easily, with topics ranging from the university, to the biker society, to something about the failure of the typical highschool as an institute, and then to their favourite genres of music. Felix and Chan also get the chance to talk about Australia for a little bit before being pulled into a discussion about hand sizes, where Minho and Felix bond over having tiny hands while everyone else yells in awe at the younger Australian’s “baby hands”. 

Somehow, the conversation moves onto tattoos, and suddenly everyone is taking off their jackets to show the new three their body art. Jisung spends time looking at Chan’s arm sleeve, admiring the carefully entwined clocks, roses and words.

“Why didn’t you get it in colour?” 

“Too expensive, plus black lasts longer” Chan explains, “none of us have any coloured tattoos I don’t think, though Woojin is looking at having a coloured one for his first tattoo.”

“Maybe” Woojin says from across the table. “I’ll have to see which one I like more.”

“And Chan you still need to get your second sleeve” Changbin says from across the table, teasing. 

“I will I will! I just need to decide what I want to get.”

Hyunjin taps his own arm. “I wish I still had a free arm, I’m running out of space.”

“Is that why you have that one?” Seungmin asks, pointing at the geometric raven tattoo on the side of Hyunjin’s neck, and Hyunjin nods. 

Hyunjin’s always had a thing for corvids: ravens, crows, jackdaws, that kind of thing, and it definitely shows in his tattoos. He obviously has the one on his neck, but he also has two full arm sleeves that carry a raven theme. They’re amazingly done, especially the feathers, and Chan’s been debating for a little while whether he should think about contacting Hyunjin’s tattoo artist to design one for him, though with noticeably less birds. 

Minho had decided back when he got his that he wasn’t ready for a full sleeve, and had instead gotten his first half-sleeve: a beautiful black snake that curls and twists loosely around his right forearm, from the elbow to his wrist, the tongue even reaching the back of his hand. ‘A Mexican Black Kingsnake’ Minho had said proudly when he showed it off for the first time, his favourite breed of snake, and the one he still plans to get when he’s living on his own. His other forearm is a little more crowded, a half-sleeve depicting a collection of flowers and skulls, it’s stunning, if not almost a little sad-looking in theme. 

“I really wanna get one!” Jeongin tells Felix, excited, but Hyunjin is quick to shut it down immediately with a curt ‘you’re not getting one’, and that’s the end of that conversation.

Why don’t you have any, Changbin?” Felix asks, and Changbin sighs.

“I really want some, in fact I wanted to be a tattoo artist for a long time, but my parents would probably disown me if I got one, so I’m gonna wait for a little bit.”

“Aw mate I’m so sorry” Felix says, putting a hand on Changbin’s shoulder.

The conversation eventually moves on from tattoos. Of course, with the amount of talking going on and the amount of time they had been there, there eventually reaches a point where the majority of them are tipsy, excluding Jeongin because Hyunjin flat out refuses to give him any. None of them are exactly drunk, but they definitely have enough alcohol in their systems for their inhibitions to be a bit lowered. Which explains why as the sky ticks over from blue to orange, Chan finds himself with a lapful of Jisung as the younger trails kisses up his neck. 

“Come on guys give us a proper show then” Minho says, snickering. 

Chan immediately feels his cheeks heat up and he goes to say something about ignoring them, but Jisung just shrugs and moves positions so that he can adequately straddle Chan’s waist and give him a proper kiss. Despite the gang’s loud cheers and jeers, Chan knows his face is probably beet-red, and so he’s _very_ glad that Jisung’s face is obscuring his. 

“Oi Pe- uh, Jisung! Sorry to ruin your fun but we should probably be heading back now” Felix calls, and Jisung pulls back so he can check the time on his phone.

“Damn, the last bus is that soon?” 

“Nah, but the next doesn’t come for the next two hours and I have a nine o’clock lecture tomorrow morning.”

Reluctantly, Jisung gets off Chan’s lap and puts his almost empty bottle on the table. “Thanks for hanging out with us today boys, it’s been a lot of fun.”

“Yeah we should really do it again sometime” Felix says as he gets off the grass and goes to stand next to Jisung.

“Oh for sure” Minho replies easily, Changbin nodding beside him. 

“Seungmin! Come on! We’re leaving!” Felix yells, and it’s only then that Chan realises that Seungmin is still over talking to Hyunjin. Both of them startle at the call, and Hyunjin quickly says something to Seungmin before handing him something, before Seungmin leaves and goes to stand next to Felix and Jisung. Chan realises that the thing Hyunjin gave the other is a phone, presumably Seungmin’s own, clutched tightly in his hands. Chan glances at Hyunjin, but the other is looking at Seungmin with a smile. Huh. 

With a lot of called ‘goodbyes’, (and one last kiss for Chan) the three of them head out towards the bus stop, and the members of the biker society are left alone again. 

“I love him” Hyunjin says, prompting everyone to laugh. 

“Rude, how dare you love anyone other than me” Minho says, voice full of fake offense.

“He sure seemed to also love that Seungmin kid though” Changbin drawls, half draped over his bike, beer bottle held loosely in his hand. 

Changbin’s bike is probably the secret envy of the whole group, or, it would be if they all didn’t love their own bikes so much. It’s a Harley Davidson 2018 Softtail Slim, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. A metallic black with chrome exhaust pipes, all sharp edges and hidden power, much like Changbin in Chan’s opinion. They’re a good match.

“Wow, call me out why don’t you?” Hyunjin says, though his tone suggests he isn’t mad about it at all, which is then reaffirmed by how he shrugs and grins. “He’s cute, we bonded over astronomy.”

“What like if you’re a libra or something?” Minho asks.

“That’s astrology you lettuce-brain.”

“Rude bitch.”

Chan drowns out the argument in favour of checking his phone to see the time. 9:57pm. He should also probably be heading home soon, and a quick exchange of looks with Woojin confirms his roommate is thinking the same thing as him. 

“I just got his number is all.”

“Wait, who got who’s number?” Chan asks, tuning back into the conversation. 

“I got Seungmin’s number, and I gave him mine” Hyunjin explains, waving his phone a little to emphasise his point. “We had an actual conversation while you and Jisung were busy sucking face.”

“Shut up” Chan says half-heartedly, trying to fight down his blush. Blushing is something he’s generally been doing a lot more of ever since he met Jisung, and he’s not quite sure if he likes it or not. 

“We should probably all start thinking about heading home” Woojin says, “I’m pretty sure some of you have lectures tomorrow morning.”

“Ugh, yes mom” Minho whines, but he does get up of the grass and start helping clear away the bottles. It doesn’t take long, and pretty soon afterwards, they’re all mounting up as they get ready to leave. 

“Don’t hit anything on the way home” Changbin says, “I know none of us are drunk, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

“Whatever, same to you” Hyunjin says. 

And with a few more goodbyes, they all peel away from one another and drive home in their respective groups.

* * *

It’s about a week later when Changbin approaches Chan and asks if he wants to go clubbing with the rest of the biker society. Chan hasn’t been on the group chat for a while, because Dave, but apparently Dave can’t make it for whatever reason, so the others have deemed it safe enough to go. He agrees because it’s been a while since they’ve all been out and done something stupid together, and honestly, he wants a break from his coursework. 

“Can I bring Jisung along?” He’d asked, and Changbin had responded with an ‘of course’ that’s tone suggested that the need to even ask the question was unnecessary. 

**-Korea’s Gucci Gang-**

**Aussieboo:** Is Seungmin gonna be there?

 **MinHOE:** get his ass **  
MinHOE:** #whipped

 **Bab:** #whipped

 **Aussieboo:** #whipped

 **Changbean:** #whipped

 **MinHOE:** wait a fucking second

 **Aussieboo:** :)

 **Mama bear:** Wow  
 **Mama bear:** So are Felix and Seungmin going to be there?

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** Idk probably  
 **Aussieaussieaussie:** I’ll ask

So Chan ends up calling Jisung and asking whether or not he wants to go clubbing with them. Jisung seems pretty enthusiastic about the idea, before talking about where it was going to be and the dress code, before they have to hang up. 

**-Korea’s Gucci Gang-**

**Aussieaussieaussie:** He said he and Felix are gonna be there but Seungmin doesn’t like clubs so he probs wont 

**Aussieboo:** :(

 **Changbean:** why do u even care lol?

 **Aussieboo:** Weve been talking and I highkey think we might be into eachother but he’s been a little distant recently for some reason idk

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** I can ask Jisung abt it?

 **Aussieboo:** Nah its fine I can figure it out myself  
 **Aussieboo:** I’ll keep u updated lmao

 **Mama bear:** Don’t corrupt the poor boy

 **Aussieboo:** But that’s what I DO  
 **Aussieboo:** and its fine no one ever turns me down lol

 **MinHOE:** :/

 **Aussieboo:** Don’t :/ me u didn’t turn me down

 **MinHOE:** tru

 **Changbean:** gross

 **Aussieboo:** >;3c

* * *

Eventually the Friday night rolls around, and Chan and Woojin find themselves getting ‘club-ready’ – as Minho calls it – a couple of hours before they plan to head out. The group were originally planning to meet up and then head down to the place together, but eventually decided on just meeting at said club, since that would be easier.

“How do I look?” Chan asks Woojin, doing a little dance with his arms. 

Woojin chuckles at his antics but gives him a once-over. 

“Lot of black” he eventually says, “but it looks good. Like the hair.”

“Thanks” Chan says, decently satisfied with the answer. 

He hadn’t done anything too crazy, just put on a black dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a pair of distressed black jeans, and black shoes with a light, dark blue denim jacket thrown over the top. He’d styled his hair a bit, put three small braids in the left side and left the rest hanging loose around his head, and for accessories, had donned a silver necklace that rested on his collarbones. He’d also chosen one of his favourite colognes to put on as well, a bottle of ‘Versace Eros’ Changbin had gotten him for his birthday. It was originally meant as a joke, but Chan had actually liked the scent and continued to use it, no matter how much his friends make fun of him for liking the ‘sex’ smell. Personally, Chan can’t really smell it, so he continues to use the cologne on the odd occasion he fancies wearing it. 

So after they finish getting ready, they head out, Chan sitting on the back of Woojin’s bike on the way there, since Woojin had agreed earlier to not drink and be the designated driver. Not that Chan particularly planned on drinking much anyway. And after parking and sorting out his hair where the helmet had made it look messy, they both head inside the club, a small, but not cramped student place on the outskirts of campus. 

“There they are” Woojin says, loudly enough to be heard over the thumping music and sound of everyone else talking. 

Chan follows his gesture and sees the biker society taking up a booth and also the table next to it. Evan and Becca are the first to catch sight of them and quickly wave them over, and they both end up sliding into the booth next to Changbin and Michelle. 

“Where are Minho and Hyunjin?” Chan questions, after greeting Evan and Becca, and Michelle points somewhere over to the dancefloor, where sure enough, Minho and Hyunjin can just about be seen dancing among the mass of bodies. 

“Ah I see them. Is Jisung here yet?” Chan asks, turning to Changbin, who just shrugs, taking a shot out of the many shot glasses in front of him, half of them empty. 

“If he is I haven’t seen him.”

Chan nods in acknowledgement, a little concerned about the amount of shots Changbin seems to have done. He vows to ask about it, but first says hello to Michelle and Arin, who say hi back, though it can honestly barely be heard above the noise of the club. 

“Did Rain and Noah not come then?”

Michelle shakes her head at him, “not their type of scene, they said to have fun though.”

“Ah okay” Chan says, “I’m gonna go get a drink, anyone else want one?”

“Can you get me another round of shots?” Changbin asks, looking completely serious. Changbin’s never been a particularly heavy drinker – because if his parents found out that would be a whole mess in and of itself – so this is definitely out of the norm for him.

“Are you sure?” Chan asks, a little worried about his friend, “you look like you've drank a lot already and-”

“Look Chan, eighth grade is a lawless land and Kasey declared herself god yesterday. Give me the damn shots.”

Chan doesn’t really know what’s going on, but he assumes it has something to do with Changbin’s work experience at the local middle school. He knows the other had been saying things on the group chat about it, but he wasn’t aware it would cause him to try and turn into an alcoholic. Must be worse than Chan initially thought it was.

“Jack, I’m cutting you off” Michelle says, taking some of the empty shot glasses away, and Changbin looks ready to argue, but then after a second, just slumps in his seat, looking defeated. 

"I just don't understand" Changbin says, staring at the tabletop, "I'm fucking Asian why the hell did they assign me the whitest classroom in the area? They can't name their kids for shit."

Michelle snorts in laughter, but Becca just looks at him. 

“Are you okay?” Chan asks, getting a little more worried for Changbin’s liver, and his mental health.

“Chan” Changbin says, “you don’t understand. Middle schoolers don’t care man-no shut up and listen-they don’t care! They’ll eat the gum off your shoe for two bucks and look you right in the eye as they do it Chan-Chan I’m scared what if they kill me?”

“Aw come on, it can’t be that bad-” Woojin starts to say, but Changbin interrupts him, grabbing Woojin’s arm and staring directly into his eyes. 

“I met a kid called _Kale_ , Woojin. Fucking KALE, wHO NAMES THEIR KID KALE IT’S ABUSE IT HAS TO BE-”

“Yeah okay you’re being cut off” Michelle says over the yelling, managing to get her hand around Changbin’s mouth and muting his loud spiel. “Don’t worry about him” she says with a smile, “he’s not getting any more shots.”

Chan would probably be more concerned if Changbin didn’t have anyone around to look after him, but since he does, Chan feels safe enough to leave and go to the bar, or look for Jisung. Once again, he asks if anyone wants any drinks, ignoring Changbin’s muffled yelling. But surprisingly, everyone else says that they’re fine, and because Woojin isn’t drinking tonight, Chan gets up and heads to the bar himself. He passes Minho and Hyunjin on the way, who say hello and tell him he looks great before continuing to dance.

Before he reaches the bar, he quickly pulls out his phone, intending to text Jisung and ask if he’s on his way yet, but is stopped when something grabs his arm. 

“Hey handsome.”

Jisung is wearing a white form-fitting t-shirt with a light pink cropped denim jacket over the top, a pair of grey skinny jeans and, unsurprisingly, his pink converse. But what catches Chan’s eye the most is the dramatic eyeliner look he’s gone for, the thick cat-eye wing sharp against his skin, and the pink dog-collar style choker around his neck.

“You look gorgeous.” The words are out before he can stop them.

However, he’s very glad he said them when Jisung gives him a bright smile. 

“Thanks, you too. Felix is over with the rest of the guys, but Seungmin couldn’t make it.”

“Ah” Chan says, nodding, “I’m glad you made it though, I was beginning to think you weren’t coming.”

Jisung holds a hand over his chest in mock affront. “And leave you here all by yourself? Don’t be stupid. Come on, let’s go dance.”

And with that, Jisung grabs Chan’s hand and leads him further into the middle of the floor, where they start dancing to the music, some generic pop song remix that Chan doesn’t care to try and find out nor remember the name of. 

For what it’s worth, Chan isn’t a bad dancer, having done a few lessons in his youth before his club got shut down, and Jisung isn’t half-bad either. His body moves easily with the music, and honestly, he’s quite a sight to behold. Chan would be inclined to believe he thought that because he was ‘hashtag-whipped’, as Hyunjin and Minho would say, but he’s clearly not the only one who thinks so if the, admittedly very small, crowd that gathers around to watch them dance is anything to go by. 

The music is so loud, infiltrating every bit of the building and slamming against Chan’s chest, and the rotating lights are hot and blinding, but Chan loves it. More than once his hands find their way onto Jisung, who’s body feels warm, alive and electric, it’s like a whole other universe, a small pocket of reality away from everyday life, where they can just enjoy themselves and get lost in the music and the crowd. 

After a couple of songs, they eventually decide to take a break, thanking the couple of drunk people that cheer for them, and agree that they should probably go and get a drink from the bar. But suddenly, Dave is there, standing right in front of Chan, who recoils backwards at his sudden entrance. And just like that, the pocket reality illusion is well and truly shattered, and real-life slams into Chan with all the subtlety of a truck. Jisung sees him too, and clearly recognises him as the guy who threw a water bottle at his back if the narrowing of his eyes is anything to go by. 

“Hey Chris” Dave says, casual, like he isn’t being glared at by both Chan and Jisung, “can we talk? I need to ask you something.”

Chan doesn’t know what the hell Dave is doing here, but he knows this definitely has something to do with the bet, and the last thing he wants is Jisung here to hear it, so after a few seconds of deliberation, he nods. 

“I’m sorry, I’ll just be a second” he tells Jisung, who looks between them both with a raised eyebrow, but just tells Chan he’ll be at the bar, before leaving. 

Chan then lets himself be led away by Dave, and they eventually find a decently secluded area of the club, kind of near the bathrooms, but further off to the side, so there’s less chance of someone hearing them.

“So how’s it going? You making any progress?”

Ah, of course.

“If you’re talking about that stupid bet, it’s going fine.”

Dave smiles, and Chan hates that it’s not an evil or disgusting looking smile, it looks average, charming even, some would say, but the sight of it still makes him feel sick, and he longs to wipe it off of Dave’s smug face. 

“I don’t want any part of it anymore.” 

Even Chan is surprised at his own words, not even realising he’s saying them until the sentence is finished. Immediately, Dave’s smile drops a little, and Chan allows himself that small moment of victory before the next words out of Dave’s mouth squash it. 

“What? So you want me to release the video then? Is that what I think you’re saying?”

Fighting down the urge to punch the fucker, Chan just grits his teeth and steels himself. “Dave, this has nothing to do with Changbin, just leave him alone and stop holding it over our heads, it’s not funny anymore. Actually, it wasn’t even funny in the first place, it’s stupid, and fucked up, so just let it go already and delete it.”

“I will” Dave says, some of his previous smile returning, “I said I would delete it once you got me the video of you taking Peter’s v-card, I haven’t changed the terms, whether or not I delete the video is up to you, not me.”

“You’re fucking disgusting” Chan says, tone carefully blank, “completely sick in the head, you know that right?”

Something changes in Dave’s expression, and the sudden onslaught of puzzlement slowly shifts into one of amused incredulousness. 

"Wait. Don't tell me that you've actually got feelings for the guy!"

Something hot and painful flashes through Chan, but he pushes it down. 

“And? So what if I do? Yet I would much rather let him go than hurt him like you want me to."

"But do you want to hurt Changbin?" Dave counters, something in his eyes that lets Chan know he’s being deadly serious, that if Chan doesn’t go through with this, he _will_ release the video.

“Fuck you” Chan spits, his anger finally reaching its climax as he throws his arms out, harshly shoving Dave away from him. 

Dave seems legitimately surprised at the assault, but manages to catch himself before he can fall over. For a moment, they simply both stand there, staring at one another in quiet defiance, before Dave adjusts his jacket where Chan’s hands had been, and puts his hands into his pockets.

“Just remember what’s at stake here, Chris.”

And just like that, he’s gone. 

For a few seconds, Chan just stands there, looking blankly in the direction Dave disappeared. But then the spear of heat comes back, rearing its ugly head, and Chan yells out in anger, probably attracting the attention of a couple of poor club-goers. He slams his back against the wall behind him and bends down as he runs his hands harshly through his hair. He’s so full of anger, of helplessness at not being able to do anything in the face of such injustice, literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

He’s so mad.

But he has to calm himself down, to get back out there and go find Jisung, to think with a level head about his next choice of action. So he takes a few deep breaths, clears his head as best he can, and eventually pushes off of the wall and walks back onto the dancefloor.

Jisung is, as he said he would be, sitting on a stool at the bar, a half-full colourful cocktail in front of him. But the most surprising thing about the scene is that Jisung is talking to Seungmin, who looks upset. Chan thought Seungmin wasn’t coming, so why is the boy here? He doesn’t have much time to ponder it though, because Seungmin catches sight of him, and his gaze draws Jisung’s attention to him as well. 

“Hey” he says, standing next to Jisung since Seungmin has the seat, “are you okay?”

Now that he’s closer, Chan can see that although Seungmin does look upset, he also looks _defeated_ , and at the question, the corners of his lips turn down and he ducks his head to stare at the bar. 

“Hyunjin” Jisung explains, since it’s obvious Seungmin isn’t going to say anything about it, before turning his attention back to his friend. “Are you gonna head home then?” 

“Yeah” Seungmin says, and his voice sounds so small and so sad that it makes Chan want to hug him. He doesn’t though, since he’s probably not close enough to the boy for Seungmin to appreciate the gesture. 

“Do you want me to come with you?” Jisung asks, moving like he’s getting ready to stand up off the seat, but he stops when Seungmin shakes his head. 

“No it’s fine, I kinda wanna be alone right now, just stay and have fun.”

“Are you sure?” Jisung asks, still looking ready to get up as soon as Seungmin says so. 

“Really, it’s fine, thank you.” 

Seungmin smiles at Jisung, who gets up, but it’s just to hug him and tell him to get home safe. 

“Text me about it later” Jisung says when he pulls back, keeping his hands on Seungmin’s shoulders, which looks a little funny considering the height difference. 

“I will, bye guys.”

“Bye” Jisung and Chan say together, and Seungmin waves at them before walking away, disappearing into the crowd of people. 

Hesitantly, Chan takes the seat Seungmin just vacated and turns so that he’s facing Jisung. 

“I thought Seungmin said he couldn’t make it?” 

Jisung sighs and massages his temples with his hand. “He came anyway, but something happened, I’ll tell you about it later.”

Chan isn’t really the type of person to press, so he lets it drop with an ‘okay’, as much as he wants to know what happened. 

“Hey, try my drink” Jisung says suddenly, pushing the tall glass towards Chan, “it’s really good.”

“What is it?” Chan asks, assessing the pink and orange cocktail. 

“Just try it.”

Chan has never actually had many cocktails at all before, but he obliges the request and has a small drink of it, pleasantly surprised at how sweet it is.

“Oh that’s actually really good” Chan says, “damn.”

Jisung laughs and pulls the glass back towards himself, “I told you.”

“You did” Chan says with a smile, but he doesn’t get a chance to say anything else, as a head of blonde hair appears next to Jisung, looking a little frazzled. 

“Hey Felix” Jisung says, sounding a little confused at the other’s presence. 

“Hey, I need to talk to you.”

“Can it wait?” Jisung asks, gesturing with a hand towards Chan. Chan’s about to say it doesn’t matter, that he can go, but Felix beats him to it. 

“Not really. It’s kinda important?”

Jisung looks at Felix for a moment before nodding and turning back to Chan. “I’m sorry, I’ll be right back okay?”

“It’s fine” Chan says with a smile, “take as much time as you need.”

With that, Jisung gets up and leaves with Felix, leaving Chan alone. 

While he’s waiting, Chan orders a drink from the bar, just a beer since he didn’t ever really plan to get hammered or anything tonight, and drinks it slowly as he waits for Jisung and Felix to return. 

It takes a few minutes, but eventually Jisung comes back, calling out a ‘hello again’ and practically flopping onto the bar stool before taking a long drink of his cocktail, which is practically empty by now. 

“So what was that all about?” Chan asks, amused at the other’s antics. 

Jisung looks at him from over his drink and lets go of the straw.

“Boy trouble” is the only explanation he offers, and Chan laughs, somewhat incredulously. 

“Seems like everyone’s having issues with that tonight” he jokes, and Jisung laughs. 

“Apparently.”

Downing the last of his drink, Chan gets up off the bar stool and offers Jisung his hand. “Wanna dance again?”

Jisung looks at his hand, then his face, and smiles as he takes it and gets off of his own bar stool. 

“Lead the way, sir.”

Chan chuckles at the formality, but he does in fact, lead the way, pulling Jisung into a slightly quieter part of the dance floor. And just as if they’d never been interrupted before, they start dancing together again. 

A little while later, during a relatively slower song, Jisung ends up with his arms around Chan's neck, both of them pressed flush together as they sway to the music. It comes to Chan’s mind then, that he really should tell Jisung about the bet, that keeping him in the dark when he’s come to care so much about the other would be cruel and unfair. Jisung doesn’t deserve any of this, and all that’s going to happen is that when Jisung finds out, he’s going to be so hurt and betrayed, and it’ll be all Chan’s fault. 

Chan will lose him, he knows this, but as he told Dave, he’ll suffer through losing Jisung if it means Jisung isn’t hurt by someone like Dave, who would be a lot crueler about it. He can find another way to deal with the video. 

But before he can say anything about it, suddenly Jisung is kissing him, and Chan, selfish as he is, doesn't want to ruin the moment.


	5. I'm Gonna Pop Your Bubblegum Heart

Chan ends up not managing to see Jisung in-person until the next Sunday, because Jisung is busy, and honestly so is Chan. Damn essays. It’s a little frustrating, because Chan really does intend to tell Jisung about the bet, but he really doesn’t think it’s the type of conversation to be had over text. Though at the same time, Chan can’t help the wave of relief that ebbs at him every time they have to decline hanging out, because another day where they can’t meet in-person means another day that Chan doesn’t have to face the music, metaphorically speaking.

Although all things must come to an end, as much as Chan wishes he could just live in ignorance for the rest of time, and it comes when he’s texting Jisung the Saturday night.

 **Chris** **  
**So do you want to hang out on Sunday then? Tomorrow Sunday, not next week lol

 **Jisung <3** **  
**omg fuck yes I need a pick-me-up after this

 **Chris** **  
**?? What happened? Are you ok?

 **Jisung <3** **  
**ugh my parents want me >:c. I have to go, I’ll talk to u abt it later. but yeah im down for tomorrow, what time?

 **Chris** **  
**I’ll text you, bye x

 **Jisung <3** **  
**byyye ( ˘ ³˘)♥

* * *

Jisung ends up messaging him later, just as Chan is about to go to bed, saying that a new dog café has opened nearby-ish, and that he wants to go check it out, something which Chan is more than happy to do since he also loves dogs. So they head there the next day, with not even the rain being enough to deter them. 

The café is amazing, and when Chan is petting a spaniel, he tells Jisung about Berry, his parent’s dog, making Jisung gasp and tell Chan that he needs to meet Berry immediately. Chan just chuckles and agrees, saying that he’ll try and organise a day for Berry to come up. Other than that there isn’t much conversation, both of them too preoccupied by eating their sandwiches and trying to pet as many doggos as physically possible within their allotted time frame. Although Jisung almost cries when he’s told they have to leave, as that means he’ll have to put down the Pomeranian he’d had on his lap for the last half an hour. 

“I am _covered_ in hair” Jisung says as soon as they get outside, glad that the weather had cleared up to a point where it was mildly sunny. It makes trying to brush said hair off of his jeans a lot easier, the same grey ones he’d worn at the club, paired with the lace-up pink hoodie and black tattoo choker with the rose gold pendant, both of which Chan remembers from previous times they were out together. Surprisingly though, Jisung hadn’t chosen to wear his beloved pink high-tops, and instead has on a pair of lace up black boots that come up to just below his knee, and honestly? Chan can’t get enough of them. 

“I think we both went in there expecting to come out covered in hair” Chan responds, chuckling as he also brushes some hair off, the white strands standing out _exceedingly_ against the black material of his jeans. 

“True, but I wasn’t exactly complaining about it was I?” 

“Guess not” Chan says, smiling. “So what do you wanna do now?”

Jisung pauses in his quest to get the dog hair off his clothes, staring vacantly into the space in front of him while he thinks of something else to do. 

“I think I want to get bubble tea, there should be a place around here, near the beach.”

Personally, Chan’s never been the biggest fan of bubble tea, so he doesn’t even begin to know where they should start looking. Thankfully, with a little bit of exploration, and a little help from the good ol' internet, they eventually find the place, and Jisung orders a large watermelon milk tea with cherry bubbles, humming happily as he drinks it. 

They end up walking along the boardwalk again, but this time back the way they came instead of out towards the pier. 

“-so from what I got from it, Hyunjin ended up texting Seungmin about it?” Jisung says, peeling the plastic lid off of his bubble tea as he walks. 

“Is that it?” Chan asks, not exactly following the story.

Jisung shrugs, “I don’t know honestly, I’ve been home and haven’t really had the chance to talk super in-depth with Seungmin about it, so there’s a lot of shit I’m missing. Basically the long and short of it is that there’s some form of drama and the two of them really need to sort their shit out.”

Chan laughs at that, “sure sounds like it.”

It’s fairly quiet on the promenade, and there’s not really anyone around. That’s probably why it’s so surprising to both of them when Jisung suddenly gets harshly shoulder-checked by some guy that comes up from behind them. Jisung stumbles, not expecting the assault, and Chan’s thankful for his quick reflexes, managing to catch and steady him before he can start to tip over.

“Faggot” the guy spits, under his breath, but definitely loud enough to be heard by both of them considering the quietness of the rest of the space around them. 

Suddenly defensive and angry on behalf of Jisung, Chan readies himself to step forward and call the man out for his bigoted and violent behavior, but Jisung gets there first. 

Before Chan can even react, Jisung’s planting his foot forward, and swinging his arm. It takes Chan a second to realise what happened, and his eyes widen when he realises that Jisung just threw his half-full bubble tea _straight_ at the man’s head, full force. The bubbles explode against the guy due to said force, leaving patches of sticky jelly all over, and the light pink liquid runs in rivulets down his back. 

Oh _fuck._

Unsurprisingly, the man turns around with a shocked expression, and Chan sees the milk tea managed to get all over his face as well. Beside him, Jisung relaxes and brings his arms and shoulders up in a casual shrug. 

“Oops.”

Oh _fuuuuck._

The man’s expression quickly twists from one of shock and confusion to one of pure anger, and Chan recognises the tensing of his muscles as very much ‘I am going to hit you’ language. He steps forward, placing himself in front of Jisung before the man can move any closer towards them. He’s so much taller than either of them, but that’s not saying much considering both he and Jisung are around five foot seven or so. However, Chan knows he can look intimidating when he really tries, hard edges and broad shoulders, muscles coiling under his skin. 

“Back off” he says calmly, but stern enough that it has the man’s attention shifting from Jisung to him. “If you try anything, if you attack us, we’ll go immediately to the police.”

There’s some shuffling behind him and Chan sees the guy’s eyes widen the slightest bit, fixed on something over his shoulder. He risks a glance backwards, and sees that Jisung has his phone out, camera pointed straight at the man’s face, a cruel smile gracing his lips. 

“Do it then” Jisung says, voice sugar-sweet, “just make sure to say ‘cheese’ as you do.”

The man’s eyes flick between Chan and Jisung for a second, before his posture relaxes, and Chan can feel some of the tightness in his chest loosen with his relief. 

“Fuck you” the man hisses, sounding _furious,_ but he backs off and walks away, trying in vain to shake the sticky liquid off of his jacket as he goes.

Chan’s whole body sags in relief, that whole thing could have ended with one of them in serious trouble. Despite the threat, he doubts the cops would have taken their side, two gay Asians against one white guy? It wasn’t likely. He’s very glad that the man didn’t seem to realise that though, because if he did, things could have ended so much differently.

Acting like that whole thing didn’t just happen, Jisung slips his phone back into his pocket and goes to start walking again, but Chan reaches out a hand and grabs his wrist gently, holding him in place. Jisung does stop, looking between Chan’s eyes and the hand with a mildly confused expression. 

"Jisung... What was that about? That isn't like you."

Jisung’s eyes finally meet Chan’s and stay there, and Chan watches some of the hardness in them melt away, revealing a little bit of the brightness Chan had gotten so used to. 

"I'm just irritable." 

When it becomes apparent Jisung doesn’t really plan on expanding that any further, Chan tries a slightly different approach. 

“Does it have anything to do with your bad day yesterday?” He tries, and after a second, Jisung nods, biting his bottom lip in frustration, or at least Chan presumes it’s frustration. 

“Do you, do you wanna talk about it?” 

“Maybe later” Jisung says, and there’s something in his voice that tells Chan that it’s probably best to drop the conversation for now. Plus, he trusts that Jisung will tell him when he’s ready, which he clearly isn’t right now.

The rest of the walk goes by fairly easily despite what happened, with both of them just making quiet conversation about what they’ve been up to for the past week, though it’s impossible to not notice how Jisung skirts around the previous day. 

Chan had planned for this to be the day in which he told Jisung about the bet, but with everything that’s happened, and with how upset Jisung seems about whatever went down on the Saturday, he decides to leave it alone and do it at a later date.

* * *

“Is Jisung going to be here soon?” Woojin asks, shrugging on his jacket. 

Chan hands his roommate his keys, which Woojin thanks him for and pockets them. “Yeah, he said he’d be around six.” They’d agreed on the time yesterday night after the whole promenade incident, when Chan dropped Jisung off, since it would be enough time after Chan’s lecture for him to get home and ready. “Have you got everything? Toothbrush? Underwear?”

Woojin chuckles and pats his bag, “all in here, don’t worry, I’m not risking forgetting something, because I know for a _fact_ that Minho will try and let me just borrow or use one of his things, and quite frankly, I’m not touching anything Minho owns with a ten foot pole.”

Almost hurting his throat with how harsh his bark of laughter is, Chan pushes Woojin’s shoulder. “Go on then, get outta here, text me if you need anything or forgot something.”

“I will” Woojin says, smiling, “you kids have fun.”

Rolling his eyes, Chan drawls out a “sure we will” and says bye, waving to the other as Woojin walks down the corridor to the elevator. He hadn’t told Woojin he planned on telling Jisung about the bet soon, tonight or otherwise, he doesn’t want him to worry.

He barely has enough time to make sure the living room is tidy enough before there’s a knock at the door and he’s having to scramble to answer it. His heart both simultaneously lightens and also feels heavy when he lays eyes on Jisung, who’s smiling gently at him as he greets him.

“What’s with the backpack?” Chan asks when Jisung has come fully into the apartment. It’s the same backpack Chan’s seen him wear a few times, the pink one with the alien head on, but from what he knows of Jisung’s schedule, Jisung shouldn’t have had class recently.

“Oh, I stayed behind at the art room to do some catch up” Jisung says casually, swinging the backpack off his shoulder and setting it down on the ground. “I also got charcoal on my sleeve, see?” He pouts and holds up his arm, where Chan can indeed see a smudge of black on the sleeve of his hoodie. 

“Oh no! Chan says, not sarcastically, as he moves closer to assess the damage, “will it come off?” 

“Yeah it will, just need to chuck it in the washer when I get home.” 

Chan’s about to move away and resume setting things up, but Jisung snakes an arm around his torso and kisses him, making Chan definitely _not_ squeak in surprise at the action. He settles in quickly though, and despite the guilt he can feel clawing at him, rests his arms on Jisung’s hips as he kisses back, leaving them there even as they both pull away for air. 

“I see you got all dressed up for me” Jisung says, a teasing lilt to his voice as he runs his eyes up and down Chan’s figure. 

“Only the best for you” Chan replies with a grin, though inside a part of him does worry Jisung didn’t approve of the simple white-shirt and black sweatpants he’d thrown on, and wanted him to wear something different. 

Jisung giggles and lets go of Chan, who in turn lets his hands slip off of Jisung’s hips and rest at his sides. “It’s cute, you look super cosy. I wish I’d brought my sweatpants now.”

“Are they pink?” Chan asks, copying Jisung’s teasing lilt from before to hide his relief, and Jisung laughs and shakes his head.

“Surprisingly, no, they’re grey. I should really get some pink ones though.”

Jisung’s wearing a pair of simple, light blue jeans with distressed knees and thighs, as well as a large, comfy-looking bubblegum-pink hoodie with a cute little cartoon sushi embroidered on the front left side. He’d taken his shoes off at the door, a pair of white pumps with pink laces, revealing his pink socks, and he’s not wearing a choker or any jewelry.

“Oh! I brought snacks!” Jisung says suddenly, bending down so that he can open his backpack and start rifling through it. 

“Snacks?”

“Yeah!” He evidently finds what he’s looking for, calling out an excited “ah ha!” as he pulls out a pack of oreos and packet of strawberry laces.

“Where did you get those?” Chan asks, “and you know you didn’t have to bring anything.”

“Yeah I know” Jisung says simply, raising one shoulder, “but they were handing them out in the art room just before I left, so I just grabbed a couple things before I came over here.”

“Ah” Chan says, checking his watch for the time, “well if you haven’t eaten, do you want to order any food? I’ll pay of course.”

Jisung puts a hand dramatically on his brow, “such a gentlemen, and sure I could eat, if you really don’t mind paying that is.”

“I don’t” Chan says with a smile, “you wanna get Chinese?”

Something lights up in Jisung’s eyes and he grins widely, “hell yeah! I haven’t eaten Chinese food in ages!”

Happy with the choice, it doesn’t take long for Chan to place the order at a small, but good, takeaway nearby. He gets his usual, salt and pepper chicken with white rice, cause he’s boring like that, and Jisung orders the sweet and sour chicken with egg-fried rice. Though, since they have around half an hour before it’s delivered, Chan takes the opportunity to show Jisung around the apartment. It’s not huge, being just a student one, but it’s decently sized and really nice compared to a lot of other accommodations, with a large open plan living room connected to the slightly smaller kitchen. Chan knows the only reason it’s so nice despite the price is because it’s so far away from the university, which doesn’t really have any free parking. But since Chan and Woojin have bikes, they can park them in the bicycle stations no issue, which is free. Plus, Chan really doesn’t mind the ride, and he and Woojin often take the longer road to the university just to enjoy it. 

Jisung seems impressed by the apartment, saying how amazing it is for a student place and comparing it to his shitty halls, which, despite being right next to the uni, is tiny and cramped. 

“God you even have a double bed, this is so unfair” Jisung whines, flopping onto the grey bedsheets and snuggling into them. “I just have a small single. Not even a full single! A small one. It’s like a camper bed.”

Chan laughs under his breath at the admittedly cute sight and walks further into the room. “You better not get foundation all over my sheets.”

In retaliation, Jisung starts rubbing his face all over the bed, making Chan yell and jump onto the bed in order to try to stop him. It’s not hard, and Jisung starts cackling when Chan manages to pin his shoulders down.

“I’m not even wearing makeup!” He yells out between his bouts of laughter, and Chan smiles down at him. 

“I know, I just wanted to do this.” And then they’re kissing again.

* * *

“So what do you actually want to watch?” Chan asks as he sets two glasses of soda on the coffee table, the one in front of the sofa Jisung is currently sitting on. As fun as their impromptu make-out session on the bed had been, it hadn’t lasted long before Chan was saying they needed to be in the living room in case they missed the delivery person. Much to Jisung’s whined displeasure. 

“Not gonna lie” Jisung says, looking up from his phone, “I don’t really wanna watch anything.”

Chan shrugs, “that’s fine, we can just have something on in the background.” 

He walks around the coffee table and settles on the sofa, next to Jisung but not close enough to be touching, and picks up the remote, turning on the TV. The screen brightens up, revealing that it’s on the sports channel.

“NOOO!” Jisung yells out dramatically, immediately beginning to lunge over the small distance between them and grab the remote out of Chan’s hand, “I’m _not_ watching sports! Turn it off!”

“What’s wrong with sports?” Chan asks loudly, trying not to laugh as he attempts to keep the remote out of Jisung's grasp, though he’s failing miserably if his huge grin is anything to go by.”

“Everything!” Jisung wails, but his own smile gives away his own feelings on the matter.

What follows is a small, playful fight about the channel, where Chan eventually caves to Jisung’s demands, and so they end up settling on a music channel. Just in time for the doorbell to ring, signalling that their food has arrived. 

Unlike a few of their other dates, they end up conversing quite a lot as they eat their dinner, going over what the other had missed while they’d been apart, such as assignments, meetings with friends, and what was happening with Seungmin and Hyunjin. Periodically interrupted to make fun of or comment on whatever music video happened to be playing on the TV of course. Chan had learned then, that Jisung was actually a really decent singer, with a surprisingly powerful, melodic voice. He also sang along occasionally, and when he did, Jisung complimented him on his own vocals, making Chan duck his head to hide his bashfulness every time. 

Once they’re finished with their food, the atmosphere becomes super casual, with Jisung having moved onto the floor next to the coffee table in order to sprawl out more, and Chan practically lying horizontally on the sofa. It feels really nice, really comfortable, and Chan just wants the moment to last forever.

“These strawberry laces taste like shit” Jisung comments, looking with disappointment at the lace in his hand, his fifth one if Chan is remembering right. 

“Yeah they do” Chan agrees. He was mostly just eating them for something to do at this point, though they were rather bland and too tough for his liking. 

With how not-great they taste, it’s no wonder that they spend less time eating them, and more time just messing around with them, whipping at one another’s arms, or just generally swinging them around while watching the TV screen. 

“I wonder” Jisung says after a minute or so of silence, looking at the lace in his hands, “if you could use strawberry laces as wrist bonds during sex?”

The question catches Chan so off-guard he ends up laughing hard enough to start practically choking on the lace he’s eating, tears building in his eyes while in the background, Jisung protests that it's a legitimate question.

“No I think I’m onto something here” Jisung says, and Chan’s still laughing too hard to respond. Even as Jisung gets up and climbs onto the sofa, trying to tie Chan’s wrists together with the laces to “to see if they're strong enough!” while Chan tries to stop him by pulling his hands away every time Jisung grabs at them. 

"Stop moving!” Jisung yells, “I'm testing my experiment! I'm a _scientist_."

Finally, Chan’s vision clears enough to the point where he can see Jisung’s face above him, beaming down at him, and it’s not long after he realises that Jisung is full-on straddling his hips in his attempt to hold him down. Although the action probably wasn’t intending to be sexual or anything on Jisung’s part, Chan can’t help but get flustered, already feeling the familiar heat spread on his face. Goddamn his blushing. Jisung obviously sees it too if his sudden devious-grin is anything to go by – which doesn’t exactly help Chan’s flustered state – and before he knows it, Jisung is kissing him, keeping his arms held down with a surprisingly strong grip on both of his wrists. His lips taste like fake strawberries and sweet and sour sauce, an odd combination to be sure, but Chan honestly couldn’t care less. 

However, as the kiss starts to become more and more heated, Chan realises what he’s doing, and how this isn’t how he wanted the night to go down. Jisung was meant to be here tonight for Chan to tell him about the bet, to finally come clean and stop stringing Jisung along, even though it meant losing him. He wants to voice all of this, to tell Jisung that they should stop before they go any further, but it’s hard, the feeling of Jisung so close, of Jisung’s hands moving and slipping under his t-shirt to run up and down his sides, it’s distracting. 

“Jisung I-” he starts, trying to ignore how much he wants to continue, but Jisung seems equally unwilling to be stopped and cuts him off with another kiss, one that Chan can’t help but return. 

This happens a couple more times, Jisung cutting off Chan’s half-hearted “Jisungs” with kisses until Chan finally manages to get him to stop, pushing on Jisung’s shoulder just enough to have Jisung looking at him, concerned. 

“I can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

As much as it pains him, Chan gently takes Jisung’s hands off of him and sits up, Jisung moving out of the way and sitting on the other side of the sofa. He thought Jisung might be upset at the sudden stop, or ask him why his tune had changed so suddenly, but all Jisung does is sit there with a patient expression, just looking at him as he grabs the remote and turns the TV off. 

“I-” Chan starts, feeling his throat begin to tighten. He wishes he didn’t have to do this, that things were different and that they had met under different circumstances. He wishes that he’d had the courage to tell Jisung about the bet from the start. He wishes that Jisung wasn’t so nice, so amazing, that he hadn’t caught feelings for him. He wishes, he wishes. And for a moment, he considers not saying anything, just brushing it off and continuing. But he can’t. 

Jisung doesn’t deserve that. And Chan knows that although it will hurt him now, it would be a lot worse if Jisung was to find out at a later date.

“I’m… I’m sorry” Chan says after a moment, feeling his chest squeezing painfully and a stinging sensation start to build up behind his eyes.

“For what?” Jisung says, looking at him with the same expression as before.

“I. I really like you, Jisung. More than I, _fuck_ , more than I think I’ve liked anyone before. There’s nothing I want more right now than you, but I… I’ve been…. I’m such an asshole, I’ve been hiding something from you that I really should have told you the first time I spoke to you, out on that road outside the music building, the night I drove you home. I haven’t said it yet because I’m a goddamn coward” his voice breaks and he has to swallow down the lump in his throat to continue, determined not to cry, determined to not make this about him. “I didn’t wanna lose you, or see you upset, but I know that if I continue then it’ll be something I’ll regret forever. And I, I know that in the end I’ll just be hurting you even more.”

He clears his throat, lifts his head, and looks somewhere past Jisung’s head, not wanting to cower, but also not having the guts to look him in the eye. 

“The- the whole reason I approached you that night, was because of a bet. Dave dared me to take your virginity and, and film it. I _hated_ him so much in that moment. I still do, but before I was willing to try and go through with it, whereas now I know I can’t do that to you. I’m… I’m _so_ sorry Jisung.”

For a long, _long_ moment, there’s nothing but silence.

But then Jisung sighs and relaxes, sitting back and crossing his arms over his chest before fixing Chan with a look, maintaining eye contact with the other.

“I know.”

“W-what?”

“I knew about the bet.”

For a second, Chan thinks he hasn’t heard right, just staring blankly at Jisung’s calm expression. But the words eventually sink in, and Chan feels a wave of shock overcome him, slamming into his chest and leaving him completely breathless.

 _“How_?” He manages to choke out eventually, voice sounding breathy and strained even to his own ears.

"Felix told me. That night at the club. He overheard you and Dave talking and how he threatened you. That's why he wanted to talk to me just after you came back to the bar."

Chan is immediately catapulted back to that night, the rage at seeing Dave, at how Felix had looked vaguely concerned, and kept insisting it was important. 

“Then why” Chan says, still struggling to comprehend what’s happening, “then why didn't you say anything about it?”

Jisung goes quiet at that, his eyes moving down and fixing on some part of the sofa for a moment before moving back up and locking with Chan’s again. 

"I wanted to see how long it would take you to tell me."

Something very cold lodges in Chan’s heart. Had all of this been an act then? A test to see how long it would take Chan to crack under the pressure? Did… Did Jisung not actually care for him? Chan knows he would deserve it, but that knowledge doesn’t stop the fact that it _hurts_.

“Is… Is that why you were trying to sleep with me tonight then?” He asks, voice small. 

“No” Jisung says, and the answer is gentle, but forceful, surprising Chan. “I would have done it anyway, because I genuinely like you as a person. I... I like you a lot actually, I know we haven't actually known each other for _that_ long, but I don't think I'm willing to give up on whatever it is we are, I really... I really want to see where this goes. So yeah."

Chan’s stomach flips at those words, filling with butterflies and making him feel sick from relief. Jisung doesn’t hate him, but more importantly, wasn’t pretending to like him for the amount of time that they were dating after the club. Hell, he even wants to continue their relationship, to see if they could be something more maybe?

“Hey” Jisung says, pulling Chan’s attention back to him. “In your confession just now, why didn’t you mention that the reason you were doing this is because Dave was threatening Changbin? If I hadn’t of known that already, it would have just made you look like a huge asshole.”

“I thought you wouldn’t wanna hear it” Chan admits, looking down at the couch, “I didn’t want it to sound like I was just making excuses. And, and I didn’t want you to think that the only reason I was with you was because of Changbin, because it wasn’t, I really do have feelings for you, strong ones. So strong that I’m honestly, I’m a little scared.”

“You’re an idiot, Chan” Jisung says, and Chan looks up, surprised. But Jisung isn’t staring at him with malice, in fact, he’s smiling. And before Chan can react, Jisung is kissing him once again, though softer this time, full of tenderness and gentle reassurance, and Chan almost feels like crying with the amount of sheer relief that washes over him. 

When they pull away, Chan keeps his hands on Jisung’s arms and presses their foreheads together, just savouring the moment and allowing his mind to realise that for whatever reason, Jisung isn’t leaving him, that he doesn’t hate him. Jisung seems to understand that he needs this, because he lets Chan just sit there for a minute, before kissing Chan’s forehead in a surprisingly gentle manner, and pulling back for good. 

“Oh,” Jisung says after a second, “and by the way, just before we continue, I'm not a virgin."

For a split second, Chan is shocked at the revelation, but then he realises that the only basis he had for Jisung being a virgin was Dave’s word, and quite frankly, Chan knows he really shouldn’t have taken Dave’s words as law in the first place.

“So, what happens now?” Chan asks, still a little bewildered at how this entire conversation hadn’t gone the way he thought it would at _all._

Jisung doesn’t say anything for a few seconds, staring at some point over Chan’s shoulder before his eyes snap back towards Chan’s own, a fierce determination in there that takes Chan’s breath away. 

“I’m going to try and help you and your friends get the video back.”

“How?”

“I don’t know” Jisung admits, sounding the tiniest bit sheepish, but still mostly determined. “But I feel bad for Changbin, and for you, and I wanna help. Like… Maybe we can catch Dave doing something incriminating or something, I dunno. What even is the video clip?”

“The one Dave has of Changbin?” Chan clarifies. 

“Yeah.”

Chan takes a deep breath. 

“We were at a Halloween party last year, one of the students Woojin knew had thrown it at her apartment, and invited him and his friends, so he brought us along. Us being the biker society, so Dave and everyone else was there. We got blind fucking drunk, to the point where we were all acting so fucking stupid, and lost sight of each other. I… I don’t remember this happening, but apparently someone at the party persuaded Changbin to do a line of coke with them, and Changbin was so drunk he couldn’t tell left from right and just said yes.”

He can see Jisung’s slight surprise and confusion, clearly not seeing how this led to the bet, but Chan isn’t done yet.

“He hated it apparently, said it burned and it wasn’t worth it at all, and that he wouldn’t ever touch it again, but that night Arin had been recording him do the line, cause he was completely hammered as well. After the party we’d all went back and stayed at Rain and Noah’s place since they lived in the same student apartment block, and they were the only two who didn’t drink and so kinda took care of us. So the next morning in their apartment, when we were all decently sober, we realised that Arin had sent us the video at some point the previous night, much to Changbin’s horror. It wasn’t a _huge_ deal though since Arin hadn’t sent it to anyone apart from the biker society, and all we did was kinda clown him for trying cocaine, before all deleting the video in front of each other so that there would be no evidence that it happened.”

“Everyone except Dave” Jisung says, understanding blooming in his eyes.

“Everyone except Dave” Chan confirms. He rests his elbow on his leg and rubs a hand through his hair. “But the thing is, Changbin’s on scholarship with the university, to be a _teacher_ , so if that video gets out because Dave publishes it somewhere the university can see, he’ll lose his scholarship for sure. Maybe not be kicked out, but there’s no way he can become a teacher with that kind of thing floating around the internet. And Changbin’s parents are strict, like, _really_ strict, if they found out he’d lost his scholarship because of that they would probably disown him.”

“Jesus christ” Jisung breathes out, “poor fucking guy.”

“Yeah” Chan says, agreeing with the comment, but also Jisung’s sympathetic tone.

“Dave is such a fucking asshole” Jisung continues. “If I wasn’t sure I was going to help before, I definitely am now. I don’t know what I can do to help, but I’ll try.”

“You don’t have to” Chan says, trying to stress the importance of the statement, “this could potentially get really ugly.”

“I know that” Jisung replies, unwavering, “I still want to.”

God, how can someone hear everything they had, and _then_ want to help their deceiver out of a potentially dangerous situation? Chan doesn’t know. But Jisung is such a fiery, surprising, and amazing person, and Chan is so happy that he didn’t lose him tonight. He knows how easy it would have been for Jisung to just get up and walk out that door, and he vows to himself right there and then, that he’s never going to make that decision that easy for Jisung ever again.

“Now get over here, handsome” Jisung says, opening his arms with a small smile, “I can’t bear to see you sitting over there looking all sad for a minute longer.”

Chan laughs quietly, but acquiesces, maneuvering so that he and Jisung are laying down on the sofa together, arms wrapped around one another, with Jisung’s head tucked just under Chan’s chin. And for the first time in a while, Chan allows himself to feel completely relaxed, just lying there and reassuring himself that everything is okay. It takes a while, but eventually Chan’s heartbeat settles, and he no longer feels like everything is about to come crashing down on him, having finally accepted that Jisung isn’t going anywhere. 

After another half an hour or so, the silence is broken.

“Chan?” Jisung asks, surprising Chan a little since he thought the younger was asleep. 

“Hm?”

"Can I suck your dick?"

Immediately Chan is spluttering, face flushed a bright red as Jisung laughs against his neck, before looking up at him with a grin. It’s then that Chan realises Jisung was being serious, not just trying to lighten the mood with a joke. 

"Really? Right now?" He tries to ignore how his voice squeaks. Jisung is literally going to be the death of him one day, and somehow he seems completely fine with that.

Jisung’s grin gets wider and he rolls his eyes a little. "Hey I've already been denied a fuck tonight, let me have this." 

Chan didn’t think it was physically possible, but he blushes even harder, prompting Jisung to laugh again and call him cute as he kisses his nose. Which really doesn’t help the situation. 

“I um, I… ye- If you… Sure.”

Ah, the pinnacle of eloquence. 

Jisung just laughs even louder at his clumsy agreement, and pulls away from the hug with one last kiss.


	6. That's What Young Love Is All About

As expected, “Korea’s Gucci Gang” are all shocked at the revelation that Jisung knew about the bet the whole time, and even more shocked that Jisung is willing to _help_ them. There’s a huge explosion in the group chat about it, and Chan ends up having to type in all-caps just to get what he wants to say across. And of course after that there’s a big discussion, followed by a mad scramble to add Jisung, Seungmin and Felix to the group chat. Chan’s the slightest bit sad to see the old chat gone, but weirdly enough, with the other three in it now feels whole.

**-Korea’s Gucci Gang-**

**Mama bear:** I’m just saying that this would be more easily discussed in person

 **MinHOE:** like face to face?

 **Frinkles:** I believe that’s the definition of in person yes XD

 **MinHOE:** wow ok just come for me like that then

 **Frinkles:** ;D

 **Sharpay Evans:** sldjjskdjf wow  
 **Sharpay Evans:** i can do next friday?

 **Bab:** No make it Saturday I wanna come too! :c

 **Aussieboo:** okay but WHY do u wanna come???

 **Bab:** I wanna help and I cant do that if Im in class

 **Mama bear:** I dunno Jeongin are you sure you want to hear this? It’s real messy

 **Bab:** I’m sure

 **Aussieboo:** :/

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** If Jeongin wants to come he can, it should be fine

 **Aussieboo:** :///

 **Bab:** :D

 **Mama bear:** So Saturday then?

 **MinHOE:** i can do saturday all day

 **Frinkles:** saaaame

 **Sharpay Evans:** Same

 **Dandelion:** Same

 **Bab:** Same!

 **Aussieboo:** yeah I can too

 **Changbean:** I only just read through the chat but I’m good for Saturday

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** Saturday it is then

So Saturday it was, five days after Chan told Jisung about the bet.

They all meet up at a café, not The Gallery for once though. In fact, Seungmin had been the one to suggest the café, since it was very far away from campus and so a lot less likely to be stumbled upon by someone they knew. It was a nice place, bright and welcoming, with high ceilings and big booths with tall backs. Not _quite_ big enough though for all of them, so Chan ends up pulling Jisung onto his lap after a slight second of hesitation.

Jisung settles quickly, putting his arm around the back of Chan’s neck without looking away from his phone, and to his right, Minho and Felix exchange a laugh, clearly pointing at them. Chan ignores them. 

It was strange, but ever since Chan had admitted the bet, something between Chan and Jisung -that Chan didn’t even know was there- had disappeared. After some thought, it was clear that both of them had been holding back, admittedly, more so Chan than Jisung, because of their knowledge of the bet. But now that everything was out in the open and Chan had accepted that Jisung wasn’t leaving him, suddenly affection came much easier to him, flowed that much more naturally. He still gets flustered whenever Jisung obviously flirts with him, but no longer holds himself back out of fear of getting too close and losing it all. It’s nice, finally having such a colossal roadblock crossed in their relationship… But now they have to deal with the next one.

“So you both know what happened with Chan and Dave then?” Woojin asks, flagging down the waiter so they can get some water.

“Kinda” Felix responds, “Jisung told us that he told Chan, and obviously I knew it was a bet from that day in the club.”

“Yeah, and then we agreed to help out” Seungmin pipes up, “but we don’t really know the details.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Chan sees Hyunjin trying to catch Seungmin’s gaze and failing miserably. Seungmin just keeps his eyes fixed on Woojin, not even glancing in Hyunjin’s general direction. The whole thing seems extremely awkward between them, but everyone seems willing to just let them work through it, so Chan doesn’t say anything. 

“Right, well I guess we should start at the beginning then” Woojin says, and Jisung puts his phone away, all of them do, and listen carefully. “It started about a year ago, and we were at a Halloween party at some dorm…”

* * *

“That doesn’t explain why Dave is doing it though.”

“What do you mean?” Minho asks, confused.

“Like” Seungmin starts, “yeah I know he’s a dick but why choose Changbin? And why Jisung? Does he just get off on it or something? I just think there has to be more to it than that.”

There’s a small moment of quiet as everyone ponders the thought.

“Maybe it is just that though?”

Chan looks at Jisung, “what’s it though?”

Jisung shrugs one shoulder, glancing at Chan before back at the rest of the table. “I actually met Dave once in the student union building, back when I was still in the process of being enrolled. He was kinda a dick to me then as well.”

“Wait what?” Chan says, shocked, “why didn’t you tell me?”

“It slipped my mind, I was meant to say it before but I totally forgot and only just remembered now cause it was such a short meeting.” For what it’s worth, Jisung does look apologetic, and Chan isn’t that upset that Jisung didn’t tell him, so he squeezes the younger’s hip in what hopefully conveys his forgiveness.

Felix perks up, waving a hand. “Oh wait yeah I remember you telling me about that!”

“About what? What happened?” Jeongin asks before Chan can. 

“Nothing really” Jisung admits casually, “he mocked my jacket, that was about it, I was in too much of a hurry for it to really turn into anything else, so I just blew him a kiss, said thanks and left.”

“Good christ no wonder he picked you to torment” Changbin says, though his tone betrays his amusement. Everyone else nods or just makes small noises of agreement. 

“Well we know that Dave probably picked Chan because he knows that Chan would do it for Changbin, but why not just go to Changbin directly?” Seungmin asks. “I’m not saying you would go through with the bet either, Changbin, but you know, why create a middle man?”

Chan blinks, never having thought about it like that before. Everyone else seems puzzled as well, because yeah, why _did_ Dave go to Chan instead of Changbin when it’s Changbin that’s worried most of all about the video getting out?

“Plus” Seungmin continues, “he’s doing this because he has something against Jisung obviously, but if he has something against Changbin, why involve Chan at all?”

Felix shakes his head, “I don’t actually think Dave does have anything against Changbin.”

“Explain” Minho says, sounding very confused. Chan empathises.

“I don’t know if I’m right, but I think that the video is probably the only leverage he has, and it's probably not anything against Changbin himself.”

“That… makes sense” Hyunjin says slowly, measured as he thinks about his next words. “But then what could he possibly have against Chan that he doesn’t have against Changbin?” 

More silence. 

“Changbin’s straight” Minho eventually says, pulling everyone’s attention towards him. 

“What?” Changbin and Chan say at the same time, but Woojin sits up straighter, understanding in his eyes.

“Minho’s right” he says, “Jisung’s pretty openly queer, but Chan, you’ve talked about being bi a couple of times since we started hanging out with him. Dave knows Changbin’s straight, so why ask him to date a guy? We’ve already established he probably doesn’t have anything against Changbin, and is just using the video because it’s all he has, but Chan, what if the thing he has against you is that you’re also queer?”

Chan screws his face up, “you really think he hates us that much? He’s never been that openly homophobic before.”

“Ehhhh, kinda” Hyunjin says, “like he talked to me about pulling girls but whenever I talked about guys he would always change the topic you know?” Chan notices Seungmin’s eyes go down to the table at that. “And remember when Noah and Rain joined the society? He was super weird about them too cause they’re queer, we just shut it down immediately is all.”

“It really does make a lot of sense, you think that could be it?” Jisung says, looking at Chan, and loathe as he is to admit it, Chan nods. 

“I’m pretty openly gay though, why didn’t he pick me?” Minho asks, sounding puzzled, and everyone shrugs. “Or Hyunjin? Hyunjin’s pan so…”

“Hyunjin’s popular though.”

Hyunjin pulls a face. “Not really.”

“More popular than us” Woojin counters, “you glance at a group of freshmen girls and they start giggling.” And there’s nothing really Hyunjin can say to that because it’s true.

"What about Minho? Like you said, you're openly gay. " 

Minho looks at Felix and shrugs. There's a moment where everyone flails to try and find a reason as to why Minho wasn't chosen. They eventually land on that it's because he's best friends with Hyunjin, though none of them are super sold on it, since Chan is also one of Hyunjin's best friends. 

As the group gets crossed off one by one, Chan begins to question more and more why exactly Dave chose him specifically. Is it really because he’s the only one left? Because Dave knows about his self-sacrificing tendencies? Knows that he would want to keep the threat under-wraps? 

Something niggles at Chan’s brain and he’s speaking before the idea has even fully formed.

“I mean…” he says slowly, aware all eyes are suddenly on him, “I did have a… a little crush on Mateo when I first met him? But would he have known about it? He never said anything.”

Against his chest, Chan both feels as well as hears Jisung’s snort, accompanied by Minho and Hyunjin’s laughter and Changbin’s “ehhhhhh”. 

“What?” Chan asks, a little offended at the reactions. Even _Woojin_ looks like he’s suppressing a smile. 

“Chan, baby, apple of my eye, my little honey nut cheerio” Jisung drawls, tone purposely patronising, “you’re not exactly subtle.”

Chan tries to not let his jaw drop even as the table explodes into laughter at his expense, because they’re not necessarily _wrong_ per say, but that doesn’t mean Chan has to like it. Clearly something must slip through though because Jisung leans back against him and kisses him apologetically, and it’s very hard to stay mad after that. 

Eventually the laughter dies down, and all at once the air becomes heavier once more as everyone remembers why they’re having this conversation in the first place.

“Great, well we have a theory as to why he’s doing it, but what are we going to do about getting rid of the actual video?” Jeongin asks, voice small, and Chan once more feels sorry for the poor kid, this whole situation is so incredibly fucked up. 

After a second, everyone starts tossing out suggestions as to what they can do. Like getting him to delete the video somehow, smashing his phone (what if he has copies?) smashing his laptop (Minho no), and even trying to bribe him with something else. Ultimately though, they don’t reach a solution that seems viable, and the mood sours a bit as everyone struggles to overcome the helpless feeling taking them all over.

“Shall we get food then?” Woojin asks.

“I didn’t bring any money” Felix admits with a sheepish smile, “I didn’t think I would need any.”

“Yeah same” Jeongin says.

“Well I can pay for you” Woojin replies with a smile, and Felix and Jeongin immediately start saying his doesn’t have to. 

“Oh _no_! Would you look at that I forgot my card too! Woojin buy me food” Minho says in a dramatic tone of voice, making everyone laugh and start pretending they don’t have any money on them. As stupid as it is, the mood does get better as Woojin calls them out for being leeches and everyone laughs more and starts bringing out their wallets. 

While they’re waiting for their food to arrive, Chan decides to steer clear of the Dave subject in order to give them a break. 

“You’re both first years right? So what degrees are you guys doing?” He asks Felix and Seungmin, who look up at him at the question. 

“Yeah we are, and I do English literature” Seungmin says, and a couple of others make a noise of interest.

“Eyy, I do English language! I’m second year.” Minho says loudly and holds out his hand for a high-five, which Seungmin returns with minimal hesitation. 

“I do music” Felix says.

“Yeah so do me and Woojin” Chan responds with a smile “but we’re in second year obviously.”

“I thought you did a sports degree?” 

“What?” Chan asks.

“I could have sworn I saw you hanging around in the sports centre” Felix elaborates, and Chan laughs. 

“Ohh, no I just do music, but I’m on the university swim team and the new sports society, so I’m in there quite a bit.”

“Yeah, Felix I told you he does sports” Jisung says, making Felix shrug in a kind of what-ya-gonna-do gesture. “And you all know that I do music and art so.”

“Same!” Changbin says, excited, “but I’m doing a double major, not a joint degree unfortunately.”

“Jesus that sounds like so much work” Felix says, screwing his face up, and Changbin nods. 

“Yeah, I was originally going to just do art because I wanted to be a tattoo artist, but my parents would kill me if I did that, so music teacher it was.”

“Is that why you’re doing your work experience at the school?” Seungmin asks, and Changbin nods. 

“Yeah. On Thursday we learned about road safety. I’ve never wanted to do a live demonstration more in my life.”

Felix and Jeongin almost choke on their water and Minho laughs at Changbin’s suffering because he’s just Like That.

“Maddyson scratched her name into the back of her chair so I tried to give her detention but she just spat on me” Changbin continues, looking about four worlds away, and Chan can feel the vibrations against his chest as Jisung tries to hold in his laughter.

“Jeez” Woojin says, shaking his head a little, “what did you do then?”

“What do you mean?”

Woojin raises an eyebrow. “Did... you not punish her for spitting?”

Looking the older dead in the eyes, Changbin takes a drink and sets it back on the table. “She’s already taken everything from me, what else am I supposed to do?”

Seemingly a little bewildered, Seungmin turns to Changbin. “Why do you let these kids walk all over you like that? You’re like ten years older than them.”

“They don’t care about age, all they rank themselves on is height and Pokémon cards and I’m losing in both.”

And that’s pretty much the end of it.

There’s a little bit more small conversation, during which time Jisung shifts his weight from Chan’s right leg to his left. Jisung isn’t heavy by any stretch of the word, but having all his weight bearing on one of his thighs was beginning to turn it numb, so Chan is glad for the re-adjustment.

“So” Woojin says, turning once again to Felix and Seungmin “do you know why you’re doing your degrees? For example, I want to be a music teacher, so I have to finish my music degree and then do a teaching degree after that.” 

“I want to write, maybe go into journalism or write a book” Seungmin says, “and I’m in the photography society, so I might make my own paper or something like that.”

Woojin nods, clearly ignoring the sound of Hyunjin and Minho fighting in the background about god knows what. “That’s cool, sounds like it’ll be fun, but also hard work. What about you, Felix?”

Felix doesn’t respond for a second, “I don’t know about me honestly” he says eventually, “I just like music and know I want to work with it.”

Chan swallows his mouthful of water before responding, trying to impart his second-year wisdom onto the younger Aussie. “That’s cool, you don’t have to know exactly what you wanna do, as long as you enjoy your course you should be fine.”

For what it’s worth it seems to work, and Felix sends him one of the brightest smiles Chan’s ever seen in his life. 

“I’m also doing art if anyone cares” Hyunjin pipes up from the other end of the booth.

“Feel free to join the conversation then” Jisung says, teasing, and Chan wonders if Jisung can feel his chuckles on his back. 

“I shall” Hyunjin says dramatically, “I do art and interior design, and I wanna be an interior designer when I’m out of uni.”

Chan feels Jisung stiffen slightly against his front. “That’ll be why you’re only in some of my classes then” Jisung says in realisation, and Hyunjin nods with a small grin. 

“What about you, Jeongin?” Seungmin asks after a moment of relative quiet, startling the younger, who seemed to be quite content just listening to the rest of them talk. 

“Oh uh, I’m not in university yet” he admits, “but for my a-levels I’m doing music, maths and history, and I really wanna be an elementary teacher because I really like working with and helping children.”

Jisung gestures lazily at the group, “so many future teachers coming outta this biker gang, who would have thought?”

Everyone shares a small laugh at that, just in time for the waiter to come back with their food. There’s a bit of a scramble to try and organise who gets which plate and drink, but it works out in the end, and suddenly those that wanted food now have it. Chan had originally been going to get a sandwich, but decided to risk the calories and get the lasagna, which smells really good. In front of him, he’s aware that Jisung got a slice of strawberry shortcake, which looks very cute, the pink icing matching the colour of the bomber jacket he was wearing over his white crop top. No shorts today, just a pair of light blue jeans, but the black boots and pink dog-collar choker are back. And Chan pretends he doesn’t notice the way the waiter’s eyes had lingered on the pair of them as he served the food.

With the arrival of food, everyone seems much happier, and somehow the conversation moves onto how they all ended up meeting one another, along with had they been to Korea, why they were living in Los Angeles and how they got there. For some reason, Chan is chosen to go first, so he takes a bite of his lasagna before starting. 

“Well me and my parents moved over from Australia when I was eight or so? We live here but every holiday we go back to Australia so. I met Woojin in first year in the student halls, and we decided to get our own place together for second year, which is the one we have now.”

“I had actually moved over from South Korea a few years before joining uni” Woojin joins in.

“So you can speak Korean?” Felix asks, and Woojin nods. “I need it to be able to talk to my parents and family and stuff.”

Changbin nods, “I can speak some too for the same reason, though I think I moved to LA about a year before Woojin did? Something like that. I met Chan and Woojin early first year since we were all doing music and so shared a lot of lectures and stuff. We all figured out we were into bikes as well which _definitely_ helped us become friends.”

Chan and Woojin agree.

“It was really funny actually” Woojin says, amused, “because we met Changbin at the introductory Korean group, and then also at society fair to sign up for the biker society _before_ we knew he was even in our course.”

“Wait the what?” Jisung asks, “introductory what?”

“Introductory Korean group” Chan says, “basically it’s for all first years to come along if you’re Korean, supposed to be a meeting thing where you can help show the less-fluent-in-English people around, and also get a Korean peer mentor, which is basically a second year who you go to for advice and stuff when you’re in first year.”

“Yeah I know about the peer mentor, I just didn’t know there was a group like that” Jisung says, “probably didn’t hear about it cause I joined late.”

“That’s definitely it” Woojin says, “we actually went along and I ended up sharing a peer mentor with Hyunjin. Who ironically is now my official mentee.”

“Wait but aren’t you in first year, Hyunjin?” 

Hyunjin turns to Felix and nods, “yeah I am, but I did a foundation year instead of my year thirteen, so we ended up having the same mentor, and now Woojin’s my actual second year mentor for my first year, it’s kinda confusing. And before you ask, no I can’t speak Korean at all, Jeongin can speak a little because our parents try to make us talk to our family back in Korea, but they hate me cause I have tattoos and stuff. Plus I’ve lived here since I was like six so I barely remember them at all.”

“Yeah. You were complaining about that, so I made you sign up for the biker society” Woojin says proudly, making Hyunjin laugh fondly. “And so he ended up hanging out with us a lot, and then it wasn’t too long after that we met Jeongin, being Hyunjin’s little brother and all.”

Chan hears Jisung make a noise of interest, but only because he’s right in front of him, had he been any further away he probably wouldn’t have with how quiet it was. To show he heard him, he tightens his arm grip, the one around Jisung’s waist, for a second, and Jisung leans further back so that they’re back-to-chest. 

“I just met them all at the introductory class” Minho shrugs, “I obviously didn’t do music or anything, but then we rang into one another again at the biker society and I kinda just stuck there, especially when Hyunjin and I got closer in dance society. And I’ve been to Korea maybe… Twice? I was born here though and I only go over on holiday.”

“What about you guys?” Hyunjin asks, gesturing to Jisung, Felix and Seungmin, “how’d you all become friends? And have you been to Korea?” 

Chan watches the way that the three of them look at each other, silently communicating with their eyes as to who talks first. Eventually they seem to reach an agreement, because Felix starts talking, his deep voice filling the silence.

“Well I’ve never been anywhere that isn’t Australia or here if that answers your question. I moved to LA a year before I joined uni, and I met Seungmin and Jisung at one of the open days for this university. None of us knew where we were going so we kind of all stuck together for the whole two days. I didn’t really know anyone up here so we said we’d stay in contact, and we talked online a bunch after that. Seungmin and I figured out we were going to the same uni, but Jisung said he was going someone else, though he eventually transferred over here cause his other one ended up being pretty shitty.”

Chan perks up at that, Jisung hadn’t talked about his previous university yet, and definitely hasn’t ever mentioned that it was shitty. However it seems that Felix is done talking, which is a shame, and he makes a mental note to himself to ask Jisung about it later if the younger is willing to answer.

“-yeah I go to Korea for my grandparents but that’s it” Seungmin says as Chan re-joins the conversation. “I’ve lived in LA pretty much my whole life though.”

“Same” Jisung drawls lightly as he finishes off his cake, “I did do an exchange program in high school though, a year in Malaysia.”

“ _That’s_ what your accent is!” Minho says loudly, and despite being a little spooked at the sudden volume, Chan has to agree. He’d realised the first time he met Jisung there was another accent in his voice, but it was too subtle to really make out what it was.

Jisung laughs, “yeah, I had a much stronger one while I was there, which obviously faded a lot, but I haven’t been able to fully shake it yet.”

Before anyone can say anything else, Woojin, who had been looking at his phone for the last few seconds, suddenly starts packing up his bag. 

“Where you off to?” Hyunjin asks, shifting his leg so that Woojin can reach his bag.

Woojin shows Hyunjin his phone screen, but he must realise that no one else can see it, so he starts talking as he does so. “There’s apparently some live music at the beach, remember? It’s not too far a drive so I’m gonna head down there and check it out, anyone wanna come?”

Actually, Chan does remember Woojin mentioning something about a music festival during one of their lectures, he must have just forgotten. 

“I mean if no one’s doing anything we could all go?” Minho suggests, looking at each of them for confirmation. 

“Yeah! Make it a group day thing” Hyunjin agrees, and everyone else also chimes in with their own levels of agreement, since apparently none of them had anything else planned for the day. 

“I’ll have to text my parents and let them know I’ll be home a little later than normal, but I should be fine” Changbin says absentmindedly as they all get up and start packing everything up. Thankfully they can just leave straight away, since they paid for their food when they ordered it, and so it doesn’t take that long for them all to be packed up and heading outside to the parking lot. 

“If we’re taking the bikes we’re gonna have to double up” Woojin comments as they approach them, “we don’t have any leathers so it’ll be cold, but I think I have a spare helmet if anyone needs it.”

Everyone agrees and starts talking about who is going to pair up with who, except Minho of course, because Minho doesn't have the insurance for passengers unlike the rest of them. Also because he's not exactly a fan of people touching his bike if he can help it. Chan doesn’t blame him for being protective, the grey-matte Yamaha 2016 YZF-R3 was something Minho had helped fix up and paint himself. It’s a really nice motorcycle, smaller, but very fast and agile, which is exactly what Chan knows Minho loves in a bike. 

It ends up with Jisung being on the back of Chan’s bike, obviously, then Felix on Changbin's and Seungmin on Woojin's. Jeongin had unsurprisingly ended up on the back of Hyunjin’s bike, a black Yamaha VMAX 2016 with some blue and silver colouring also. A very pretty bike for sure, but Chan doesn’t actually know too much about that particular model. 

The ride goes really well despite Seungmin and Felix’s lack of experience being on bikes. The weather is fair and the sun shines brightly, but not enough to blind them, it also makes it warmer so the three that don’t have leathers don’t get too cold. Though they do ride slower than normal to also account for the lack of riding leathers. 

Like Woojin said, the beach isn’t that far, and it’s only about ten minutes or so before they’re all dismounting again and heading towards the stage. There’s a fairly large amount of people hanging around, and it seems the music has already started. The general excitement of the place is cool and pretty contagious, so Chan’s not surprised that it doesn’t take them that long to split up a little and go dance in whatever area they wanted to. 

Even after an hour or so, Chan doesn’t recognise any of the bands playing, seemingly smaller names, probably local, but the music is pretty good if not super memorable. He and Jisung dance to a few of the songs before ending up alongside Minho and Felix, where they all proceed to all dance together to the next two. 

“We should have brought drinks!” Minho yells over the music, and Jisung nods, not stopping in the bouncing dance he was doing along to the music, one hand raised in the air as he does so. 

“Probably would have been a good idea!” Felix says, they’d run out of water about fifteen minutes ago and apparently they were beginning to pay the price.

“Who’s phone is going off?” Jisung says suddenly, and there’s movement as all three of them check their pockets. 

“Oh it’s mine, hold on I’ll go answer it somewhere else” Chan says, loudly so that he can be heard. There’s absolutely no way the person on the other end would be able to hear him in this level of noise, but he answers the call anyway to make sure they don’t give up. It’s probably Woojin calling to ask where abouts they are, so Chan doubts his roommate minds the racket that’s probably coming through the speakers right now.

“Alright, we’ll just be here” Jisung says back, resuming dancing, this time with Felix. 

It takes a while since the music is everywhere, but eventually Chan manages to make it somewhere quiet enough that he’ll be able to hear the voice on the other end of the phone. 

"Sorry about that, who is this?" He says, pressing the phone to his ear, they’re still on the line thankfully, Chan had checked just before greeting them.

“Hey Chris, can we talk?” Dave asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chat names:  
> Frinkles - Felix  
> Sharpay Evans - Jisung  
> Dandelion - Seungmin
> 
> Also! If you don't feel like looking up the bikes, or wanna know tattoos and stuff I've made a references thread on my twitter! Which you can find here: [Bubblegum Bitch refs!](https://twitter.com/spacehan99/status/1248445153225986049)
> 
> Thank you all so much for your continued support, to those that review you really make my day more than I can express <3


	7. Soda Pop, Soda Pop

“How have you been?” 

His voice is so infuriatingly casual that it immediately has Chan’s anger spiking in response, and he can feel as subconsciously his grip on his phone tightens. 

“What do you want, Dave?” He asks, voice sharp, betraying his ire. He’s not in the mood for Dave’s weird mind games, sick and tired of being toyed with by the other male. 

“Has anything happened then? Between you and Peter?” 

Clearly, Dave must realise how Chan’s feeling, because he doesn’t pretend to be offended by the bluntness of Chan’s response, he just goes right into exactly what Chan was expecting. The fact that Chan can’t even have one date with Jisung without thinking about Dave is… Frustrating to say the least. The _very_ least. But, at least Jisung knows, and Dave still doesn’t know that Jisung is aware of the bet, which, although doesn’t exactly put the ball in their park since Dave still holds most of the cards, is _something_ , and they can use it to their advantage. 

Chan takes a second to breathe and try and work out what he should say in response to the question. They don’t have a plan to get the video back, so it would be completely pointless telling Dave he’s completed the bet, but at the same time he doesn’t exactly have the option of underselling it too much either. Chan doesn’t know much about Dave and how his mind works, but he has a feeling the other male is getting impatient, and he isn’t willing to risk Dave snapping and just uploading the video out of spite or something. 

Honestly, the best course of action -at least to Chan in this very moment- seems to be just to tell the truth. Plus, Chan knows he also isn’t the _best_ liar, not that Dave can tell since they haven’t spoken enough for him to be able to, but it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. That, and at some point after telling Jisung about the bet, Jisung had mentioned to Chan that if Dave asked, he didn’t mind what Chan told him, even if it was a lie. 

God, Chan loves Jisung sometimes.

“We haven’t had sex yet, if that’s what you’re asking” he says slowly. “But he did…” He feels sick. “He did blow me a few nights ago.”

"Ooohh _hhhHHHHH_ " Dave yells down the receiver, sounding so _incredibly_ gleeful. Chan just grimaces and holds the phone away from his ear for a second. “Good for you man! Thought you were gonna pussy out there for a second!”

“Uh huh” Chan says. He knows some would argue it might be better for him to play along, to try and get on Dave’s good side, but he just doesn’t have the energy to do so. Plus, it would be unrealistic for him to suddenly be cool with what Dave is doing when he’s previously fought him every step of the way, Dave would see through that as easy as glass. 

“I’m proud of you dude, I really am” Dave continues, unperturbed by Chan’s obvious lack of enthusiasm. “Though… I gotta admit I’m getting bored man.”

Chan feels his breath hitch.

“I mean yeah you got him to suck you off but it’s been like, what, a few months now? That’s too slow. Might set a time limit you know? Spice things up a little.”

Chan’s past anger at this point. He can feel it burning away inside him, insults beginning to form, sitting on his tongue like acid, poised and ready to be used, ready to ruin everything, happy to in fact.

“Why are you doing this?” Is what comes out of his mouth instead. 

He doesn’t sound angry. He sounds _tired._

There’s no response for a long time, both of them just standing there with the phone pressed against their ears, waiting. 

Then Dave hangs up.

Robotically, Chan takes the phone away from his head and closes the phone call notification, puts his phone back into his pocket, turns around and heads back towards the party. 

It’s not that hard to find his friends, as promised, they’re right where he left them, dancing away without a care in the world to some bass-y song that’s blasting over the speakers from the stage. Woojin’s with them too, so he must have come over while Chan was away. There must be something on his face though, because as he approaches, Jisung -always Jisung- spots him and stops dancing to walk over to him, closely followed by Minho, Woojin and Felix.

“What’s wrong, _amante_?” Jisung asks, and Chan almost completely misses the nickname, it’s clearly said in a joking way, but there’s something in his voice that… Chan doesn’t know.

“Dave called me” he says, and although his voice is quiet, they seem to be able to hear him over the music somehow.

“Wait _what_?” Felix asks, sounding as horrified as he looks.

Woojin’s spine straightens and suddenly all traces of mirth are gone from his face. “What did he say?” 

“He…” Chan starts, “he said he’s thinking about putting a time limit on this whole bet thing, if I don’t get the video to him in a certain time I think he’ll just release the video anyway.”

“Fuck” Minho breathes, looking between Chan and Jisung, who’s just staring at Chan, oddly blank. 

Suddenly there’s a hand in his, and Chan looks up to see Jisung giving him a small, reassuring smile. 

“Don’t stress over it yet, he said ‘might’ right?” Chan nods. “Exactly, he might just be trying to scare you, so let’s not panic over anything. Yet at least.”

Chan feels some of the tightness in his chest loosen, and he forces himself to nod and try and return Jisung’s smile. He’s not too sure if he succeeds. 

“I’ll go get the others” Woojin says, “I was just with them so hopefully they haven’t moved.” And with that, he leaves, disappearing into the crowd of people. 

“Maybe we should move somewhere a little quieter, but where Woojin will be able to see us?” Felix suggests, and Minho nods in agreement, saying it’s a good idea. So they move over to the benches on the grassy area, still in view of most of the people, but far enough away that they don’t have to shout at one another to be heard. 

Woojin eventually returns a couple of minutes later, the rest of the squad in tow. Changbin looks stricken, and so does Jeongin next to him, Hyunjin and Seungmin also look very concerned, so Chan reckons Woojin’s told them Dave called. 

“What happened?” Seungmin asks as they approach, he seems slightly out of breath and… ruffled for lack of a better word.

“Woojin told us Dave called you, something about a time limit?” Changbin continues, sounding a mixture of worried and angry. 

Woojin gestures for them to be quieter, and sits next to Chan on the picnic bench, giving him time to try and formulate a response. The others clearly realise how much this has upset him, because they immediately back off, murmuring hushed apologies that Chan wants to tell them are completely unnecessary.

“Are you okay?” Hyunjin asks softly, eyes running over Chan’s form, and idly, Chan notices that he also looks a little bit out of breath and ruffled. It’s a little bit puzzling, but Chan decides to not pay it too much mind, he's still too focused on the phone call and how to best word what he was told to them.

So he tells them everything Dave said, paraphrasing some bits he doesn’t remember, but they’re few and far between; a combination of how short the call was and how much the words impacted him. As predicted, everyone immediately launches into curses and insults aimed at Dave once he’s done, before going over if the call was Dave even being serious, or just a hollow threat.

“Wait so why did he hang up then?” Jeongin asks, looking briefly between all of them. 

Minho scoffs. “Asshole probably doesn't have a reason as to why he’s doing this, so he just hung up.”

There’s a few mutters of agreement from the others, followed by a long, drawn out silence. Finally interrupted when Changbin blows out a loud breath and scrubs a hand harshly through his hair. 

“I’m fucking sick of this” is all he says for a second. But when no one says anything in return he continues. “All I wanted was one evening where I didn’t have worry about this shit and could just have fun. Let’s just leave it, we can worry about it later. Right now all I want is to forget about the whole thing and have some fun with my friends. Can we do that? _Please_?”

Chan’s honestly a little reluctant to let it drop so easily, especially when none of them have yet come up with anything they could do about it, and looking at his friend’s faces, they clearly feel the same way. But for Changbin’s sake, everyone agrees, and slowly, the group head back into the crowd. 

“Chan, take his advice okay?” 

Chan looks up at Jisung, who was quiet for pretty much the entire conversation. “What?”

Jisung rolls his eyes a little bit, but smiles at him. “Fuck Dave, we’re here to have a good time and I’ll be damned if I let that little incel ruin it for us. Dance with me?”

And honestly? Who is Chan to say no to such a simple request?

* * *

Darkness eventually begins to fall, and with it comes the fireworks show. The group sit around on the grass, just looking up at the sky to watch them together, Jisung leaning back against Chan’s chest with Chan’s arms wrapped around his stomach. It’s a really nice moment, and the fireworks are pretty too, explosions of colour and sound against an inky backdrop. Every so often, a stray firework will catch Jisung off guard and he flinches, so Chan makes a mental note that loud noises seem to spook him somewhat. It’s adorable, and Chan knows that Jisung would be mortified if he brought it up, which just makes it all the more tempting. However, he also doesn’t want to ruin the moment, so just files away the information for later, and pulls Jisung tighter against his chest for the remainder of the show. And after the fireworks, comes relative quiet and small chatter about what a great evening it was. No one mentions the phone call. 

“We should probably head back to the bikes” Chan tells Jisung, who honestly looks about ready to fall asleep against Chan’s chest. Cute. But not exactly practical. 

“Mm, probably” Jisung agrees, and stands up, stretching out his limbs before holding out his hand to pull Chan up behind him. Chan takes the offered hand and gets up, telling the others that they’re going to start heading back to the bikes now so that they can go home, to which the others say they’re coming too, and that it’s pretty late so they should _all_ be going home. 

Chan and Jisung start walking to the bikes, which can be seen from where they’re all sitting. Chan’s legs are almost completely numb by now, and if he weren’t so preoccupied with trying to get some feeling back into them, he might have noticed how everyone else hangs back, watching them go ahead with fond, but cheeky expressions. 

The parking lot isn’t that far, less than a minute’s walk, and along the way Jisung seems to perk up, probably due to a combination of the early night chill that’s onset, and just being up and moving once again. They don’t say much of anything along the way, besides talking quietly about how the fireworks were really nice, but once they get closer to the bikes, something changes. Jisung practically skips forwards so that he’s ahead of Chan, mounting the candy red Ducati and sitting sideways on it so he can face Chan more easily. 

“Hmm, what if _I_ was the scary bike rider and _you_ were the cute boy?"

Chan resists the urge to stumble over his sentences and make a fool of himself… again. So instead he just laughs it off and starts to walk over to the other male. 

“First of all, you think you're cute? Second of all, scary?"

Jisung just shoots him a huge grin and flicks a lock of blonde hair out of his face, watching as Chan gets closer and closer towards him. “I _know_ I’m cute.” 

And when Chan is finally in front of him, Jisung reaches a hand forward and grabs the lapel of Chan's leather jacket, much like the first time they kissed, pulling him closer so that Chan is standing between his legs and their chests are suddenly flush together.

"And yeah, I guess you're not that scary, you're like a little koala."

Chan splutters, offended, and Jisung lets go of Chan's lapel so that he can laugh, head thrown back and eyes screwed shut in pure mirth. He’s beautiful. But he’s also a little shit. And quite frankly, Chan’s tired of being reduced to a complete wreck whenever Jisung does something even a little bit flirty, so he switches tactics. 

“Oh?” He says, lowering his voice a few octaves and dropping into what’s practically a growl. “How about you let me show you how scary I can be?”

Quick and unexpected, Chan pulls Jisung forward off of the bike before caging him against it, arms on either side of the younger male and hands planted firmly on the bike’s seat. For what it’s worth, Jisung squeaks in clear surprise, caught off guard, before Chan kisses him, hands moving from the seat to instead rest on Jisung's hips.

Unfortunately, Jisung settles into the kiss very quickly, humming appreciatively into Chan's mouth, so the joy at finally catching Jisung off-guard doesn’t last too long. The younger male lets the kiss continue normally for a couple of seconds, but after that, Chan feels one of Jisung’s knees nudge in-between his legs, just as the younger begins to slide his hands up Chan's shirt. 

Try as he might, Chan can’t suppress the shudder that wracks through him, or the little noise that escapes his throat. Both of which Jisung very obviously notices. 

Jisung pulls back from the kiss and starts laughing, and Chan can feel his face begin to heat up. 

“Oh yeah, _real_ scary” Jisung says.

“Shut up” Chan responds simply, pushing him back onto the bike as the sound of Jisung’s loud laughter fills the space around them. 

“ _Get a room!”_

The shout surprises both of them, and they turn around to see everyone walking towards them, Felix grinning like a mad cat, his deep and accented voice clearly identifiable as the one who had yelled at them. 

"At least I have someone to get a room with" Jisung responds casually, and Felix gasps dramatically as everyone laughs at his misfortune. 

"Surprised Pikachu face" Minho says, referring to Felix, and despite how dumb of a joke it is, Chan can’t help but join in the laughter this time. 

The group clown them for being disgusting of course, Chan would expect nothing less, but he catches the smiles they send him in between the roasts. They’re all happy for him and Jisung, and Chan’s relieved that everything ended up like this, even despite the massive weight still hanging over him.

They double up on the bikes again, same pairings as last time, and this time, Chan knows for _sure_ that he feels Jisung’s finger tracing his abs through his shirt. 

Felix ends up being dropped off first since his house is the closest to the beach, and everyone waves and calls goodbye to him as he walks up the driveway, watching to make sure he makes it inside okay before heading off again. 

It’s Seungmin next, but when he gets off the back of Woojin’s bike, ready to head to his dorm, he’s stopped by Hyunjin. 

“Can I talk to you?” 

Seungmin’s clearly reluctant, just standing there staring at him with troubled eyes. But after a few seconds of internal debate, he eventually nods, and Hyunjin sighs in what can only be relief.

“Jeongin just head home, tell mom and dad I’ll be home a bit later okay?” 

“Okay” Jeongin agrees, climbing off the bike of Hyunjin’s bike and going to sit on Changbin’s. 

“I’ll get him home safe” Changbin tells Hyunjin, somewhat unnecessarily, but Hyunjin thanks him regardless, parking up his bike and dismounting. The group wave goodbye to them both as Seungmin and Hyunjin head inside the building, and with that, they’re off again.

Chan pulls up outside Jisung’s apartment block, removing his helmet, a perfect recreation of all the other times he’s dropped him off. But this time, Chan just turns in his seat to give Jisung a goodbye kiss before Jisung dismounts. 

“Have a good night, Jisung” Chan says, voice soft, and Jisung smiles at him. 

“You too, I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay?”

Chan nods, and watches as the others say goodbye to Jisung before he heads up the path to his apartment block. He looks back just before he actually enters the building, giving them all one last wave before heading inside.

“I’m gonna go drop Jeongin off at his house” Changbin says after Jisung is gone, “and then I’m gonna head home before my parents decide to ground me. So see you on Monday probably.”

“Bye Changbin, drive home safe” Woojin responds, and Changbin nods as Jeongin calls goodbye to them. 

They pull away from each other, Changbin heading towards the Hwang house, and Chan and Woojin driving the long way back to their apartment.

* * *

“What are we actually going to do if Dave decides to give you and Jisung a time limit though?” Woojin asks that night, when they’re lounging on the sofas, drinking a can of soda each. 

Chan sighs, not moving his gaze from where he’s looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t know.”

He doesn’t know. He’s tired of not knowing. 

“I’m going to bed.” He gets up and starts walking to his room. 

“Goodnight Chan” Woojin calls after him, voice low and almost _sad_.


	8. I Think I Want You

Despite how Chan is pretty much continuously stressing over the phone call, six whole days pass and Dave refuses to expand on whether or not he has set a time limit. Chan tries texting, calling, and messaging Dave’s social medias. Nothing. To make matters even worse though, he also seemingly doesn't come into university for the Wednesday or Thursday. Or if he did, Chan didn’t see him, and neither did any of his friends.

Eventually, Jisung seems to get tired of his worrying and meets up with him in the bar underneath the student union on Thursday afternoon, where they spend the time mostly just bitching about Dave and talking about their classes. Chan’s thankful Jisung agreed to meet up with him actually, because he’s been planning something for a little while now, the only thing he’s been able to focus on outside of schoolwork, besides the phone call.

“Do you have another lecture today?”

Jisung looks at him and tilts his head to the side just slightly. “I don’t. Why?”

Chan smiles and grabs the bag he’s been carrying around all day off of the floor, swinging it up and onto his lap.

“Good. Cause I’m taking you on a date.”

Jisung’s eyes widen a little, and he smiles. “Damn, how forward of you! I’m excited to see what you have planned.” His gaze does stray towards the bag for a second, so Chan decides to explain.

“We’re going on a bit of a longer ride, so you’re gonna need to be adequately protected.”

Jisung raises an eyebrow, leaning back in his seat. “Oh? We need protection, do we?” And the way he practically purrs out the words has Chan’s heart picking up and his face heating up.

“Protection for the _bike_ ” Chan says quickly, reaching into the bag and pulling out a set of riding leathers. He’d bought the pants specifically for Jisung since he doubts his would fit, and given him his old riding jacket since it was a little too tight on his shoulders. It probably won’t fit Jisung _perfectly_ , but it’ll be good enough for the ride. Chan has just gotten a new riding jacket anyway, one with thin red stripes on the sleeves, so it's not like he needs his old one. 

Giggling, probably at how easy it is to get Chan all flustered, Jisung takes the leathers and inspects them for a few seconds before speaking again. “Do I have to strip then?”

Trying not to let himself be too affected by the question, Chan looks at Jisung’s outfit: his light blue booty shorts, a pink cropped t-shirt, a hot pink bomber jacket, and his pink timberlands.

“You can probably just wear them over your clothes if you want, and take them off later” Chan says, “though your jacket might not fit under the leather one.”

“Cool” Jisung responds with a smile, before taking the leathers and slipping off of the chair so that he can head into the bar’s bathroom and put them on. But not before giving Chan a little wink before he leaves.

While waiting, Chan checks his phone for any news about Dave, but as expected, there’s nothing once again. Disappointed, but not surprised, Chan puts his phone back in his pocket and checks on his backpack. Everything seems fine, thank god. He’s been planning this particular date for a little while now, and he hopes Jisung will like it. It’s a little cheesy… okay, a lot cheesy, but it seems like fun and Chan’s lowkey always wanted to try it out, see if it’s as nice in real life as it is in the movies.

It doesn’t take Jisung that long to change, so he clearly must have taken Chan’s advice and just slipped them over the top of his regular clothes, but he does come out with his bomber jacket slung over one of his arms. However, Chan barely even notices that detail, he’s way too taken off guard by Jisung’s appearance, the younger being in all-black for once, and leather no less.

Catching sight of his stare, Jisung does a twirl and flares his arms out.

“Do I look more to your tastes now?”

Chan snaps out of his light daze, mentally shaking his head and smiling at him. He takes a few steps closer and gently pulls Jisung towards him.

“You look amazing, but not gonna lie, I miss the pink.”

Jisung laughs, but he looks genuinely happy, and Chan can’t wipe the smile off his face. Not even as Jisung continues to lightly tease him all the way to where his bike is parked, before Chan threatens to just leave him behind and go on the date by himself. It’s a hollow threat of course, and both of them know it, but with a laugh, Jisung stops, kissing Chan in apology for ‘being mean’ to him.

* * *

After they’ve both suited up properly and hopped on the bike, Chan begins the fairly long drive away from the university, going through a few streets before finally hitting a little back highway that only has a couple of cars on it. Since the road is so straight, and so empty, Chan feels comfortable pressing down a little harder than usual on the accelerator, going just a bit over the speed limit. Not that it matters, there’s no cameras on this road. It pays off though, as from behind him, Chan can hear Jisung whooping and yelling with delight at the increased pace, he’s been on the bike enough now to know Chan won’t let anything happen to them.

The road eventually gives way to a collection of a few large hills, and Chan takes a turnoff that leads up an incline and follows it all the way to the top. It’s probably illegal to ride his bike on the grass, but thankfully there’s a small area he can put it that’s only a few seconds walk from where he planned to go anyway.

“We’re here” Chan says, turning off the engine and removing his helmet, Jisung following his lead.

“It’s… beautiful” Jisung breathes out, eyes wide and fixed on the, admittedly amazing, view of the city. “How did you find this place?”

“I knew you would like it.” Chan says, holding out one of his arms to help Jisung down, “and it’s a popular hiking spot, or at least this area is, the hills. I don’t think many people do this particular trail though ever since they made the dirk biking illegal and put the road in.”

Jisung makes a noise of interest at the fact, and takes off the leather jacket, leaving it slung over the handlebars of the bike since Chan is still sitting in the seat. There’s no one around, so Chan’s not too worried about someone stealing it or something. However, his attention is suddenly caught by Jisung, once again. With the black jacket gone, Chan’s free to see Jisung’s baby pink crop top again, as well as the black band choker he was wearing before they left. Although, those items mixed with the black leather pants and pink timberlands is certainly… a look. One that Chan finds himself liking a _lot_.

“Like what you see?” Comes Jisung’s voice, pulling Chan out of his ogling.

He can feel the blush spread across his cheeks when he catches sight of Jisung’s knowing grin, and quickly looks at the bike seat in front of him to try and hide it as he responds.

“A little.”

Jisung laughs, “you’re so cute, Chan.” And Chan looks up just in time to see Jisung climb onto the bike seat in front of him so that they can kiss. He leans forwards a little bit so that Jisung’s back is resting on the handlebars, cushioned by the jacket, and deepens it, only stopping when they need to breathe again and resting his forehead on Jisung’s.

“Want you” he says, very quiet, before he’s even aware he’s spoken.

Jisung pauses, and Chan’s ready to backtrack when the younger suddenly smiles. "And you'll have me, handsome. I can promise you that." Before grabbing the back of Chan’s neck and pulling him closer so that they can continue kissing.

“You know” Chan says the next time they stop for air, “I actually planned for us to do more than kiss here.”

“Oh? Like what?”

Chan leans back, letting Jisung sit up straight, and quickly dismounts the bike, helping Jisung down after he’s off. Jisung raises an eyebrow at him, but let’s Chan help him down and follows him towards a nice patch of grass, where they both sit down. Chan opens his backpack, checking everything is fine, before he starts pulling out a towel and putting it down -he didn’t have a blanket at home- and then a few tupperware containers on top of it.

Jisung chuckles, “a picnic?" He asks disbelievingly, and Chan pauses.

“Do you not want to?"

"Did I say that?" Jisung asks, leaning closer so that he can kiss Chan (again). And Chan feels some of the tension lift off of his shoulders, happy that Jisung didn’t call him out for being super cheesy. He then opens the containers so that Jisung can see what he brought, it’s not too much, just a couple of sandwiches, some fruit like grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cherries, and a box of assorted cookies.

“This is super sweet of you by the way” Jisung says, sounding serious, and Chan shoots him a smile.

“I wanted to do something nice, I’m glad you like it. I was uh, worried you were going to make fun of me.”

Jisung’s eyes widen marginally and he shakes his head with a smile. “You can be really stupid sometimes.” He doesn’t elaborate, but the fondness in his voice speaks for itself, and the topic is dropped as they begin eating.

They get through the sandwiches and part of the fruit with mostly comfortable silence, occasionally broken by the odd comment on the view, or the food.

“Bet you can’t catch a strawberry in your mouth” Jisung says suddenly, eyes flashing with challenge, holding said strawberry in his hand, poised, like he could throw it at any given moment.

Chan regards the fruit for a second before smiling and shrugging one shoulder.

“You’re probably right about that.”

The momentary surprise that flits across Jisung’s face is gone just as fast as it arrived, quickly replaced with amusement and no small amount of exasperation.

“Well you’re not being very fun are you?” He asks rhetorically, shaking his head fondly before scooting backwards till he’s about a metre away. “Right, so, I’m going to throw one and you have to catch it in your mouth, kay?”

Chan sighs in exaggerated resignation, but obliges and moves backwards a small bit, eyeing the strawberry as he gets ready. Thankfully, Jisung waits till Chan looks like he’s settled, before gently passing the fruit over in a controlled underarm throw. Watching it sail through the air is a little nerve-wracking if Chan is being honest with himself, not because he thinks it’ll hurt or anything, he just doesn’t want to look stupid. However, surprising himself, and Jisung as well if the younger male’s cheer is anything to go by, Chan manages to manoeuvre in such a way that he feels his teeth close around the strawberry.

It’s dumb, but Chan allows himself this small victory and raises his hands above his head in triumph cheering along with Jisung as he eats it.

"I'm even greater than I thought I was!"

Jisung laughs at that, but nods along in agreement. “That you are.”

The conversation flows easily after that as they polish off the rest of the food, leaving about half the pack of cookies since Chan doesn’t want Jisung (or himself) to get road-sick on the way back.

“So what do you want to do after you leave uni?” Jisung asks after they’re done discussing the realisation that neither of them got to say so when they were with everyone else, back at the café.

“Ideally, I want to become a producer,” Chan answers with little to no hesitation. “Or maybe an athlete” he tacks on almost as an afterthought.

Interest clearly perked, Jisung crosses one of his legs under himself as he asks what kind of athlete.

“I don’t know” Chan admits, the tiniest bit sheepish. “Honestly, it's more of a childhood dream than a real aspiration, but a part of me just doesn't want to give it up, you know? That’s why I still do sports in my free time, but didn’t commit to doing a whole sports degree.”

Jisung hums in interest, “it's good that you still have that dream though.”

Chan agrees with him, leaning back so that he can rest on his hands. “So what about you? What do you wanna do after uni?”

For a moment, Jisung almost seems to tense, before relaxing again.

“I don’t know” he says eventually, “I chose art and music because I like them, and I’m good at them, but I don’t really know where a degree in art and music can take me.”

Immediately Chan sits up again, not liking the concealed defeated note in Jisung’s voice. “I mean, it could take you lots of places, like art design, producing, photography, graphic design, artist, mixer, storyboard design or video game design, that kind of thing.”

Jisung’s eyes flick up to meet his, and a small smile spreads across his face as he agrees with Chan, though honestly, Chan can tell Jisung doesn't seem super into any of those ideas. So he changes tactics.

“You’ll figure it out.”

In any other context the words would probably sound hollow, but when Jisung’s smile becomes a lot more genuine, Chan knows that, although maybe not worded the _exact_ same, the support is something Jisung needed to hear.

“You’re really sweet” Jisung says, almost absentmindedly, “and yeah, I guess I will.”

Chan doesn’t really have a follow-up to that, but it seems Jisung isn’t looking for one, and so they spend some time after that just sitting in comfortable silence, looking at the view.

“If you weren’t dared to, would you have approached me?” Jisung asks eventually, still looking out over the city skyline. It takes Chan a second to process the question, not really knowing what Jisung means by ‘approach’.

“Like, to be my boyfriend?”

Jisung shrugs lightly, turning to face him. “Or friend, either really.”

His immediate response is _‘of course, of course I would,’_ but he swallows it down before it can pass his vocal cords, taking the time to think about it properly. He can tell that this is something Jisung has wanted to ask him for a while. How long? Chan doesn’t know, but he owes it to Jisung to be as honest as he can. 

“I mean, I had only really seen you a few times in the The Gallery before… Before Dave set the bet, and you’re not really, like, my usual type you know? Not that I was looking for a relationship anyway.”

Jisung hums, a clear sign for Chan to continue.

“However, you’re friends with Felix, and he has enough links to my friend group that I’d like to think we would eventually become friends, maybe more.” He pauses, thinking over the rest of his response. “But honestly? I don't know for sure. All I know is that I’m grateful that I did end up meeting you, even if it was through unconventional and… unwanted circumstances.”

He ends off on a huff of laughter, though it’s drowned out by Jisung’s own chuckles. Seemingly satisfied with the answer, Jisung shuffles closer and lies down so that his head is in Chan's lap, and after a quick moment of gay panic, Chan relaxes and starts idly playing with his hair.

“At least there’s one good thing to come out of Dave's manipulation.” Jisung comments, and Chan is quick to agree with him, smiling as Jisung closes his eyes and hums happily when Chan drags his nails lightly over his scalp.

"What about me?" Chan asks and Jisung opens one eye so that he can look up at him.

"What about you?"

"Would you have talked to me if I didn't approach you?"

Jisung opens his other eye and stares at the space to the side of Chan's head for a minute. Chan doesn’t say anything, just keeps combing his fingers through Jisung’s blonde locks. The younger had given him all the time he needed to come up with an answer, so Chan shows him the same courtesy.

"Probably not" he says after a minute or so, before focusing back on Chan’s face and laughing loudly at the expression he finds there. It’s mock-offense of course, but he can’t deny that he’s not a little surprised at the blunt answer. Seeing this, Jisung pulls his knees up a bit so his feet are flat on the ground, and elaborates.

"I've had my fair share of bad boys, Chan. And I didn't know you were a sweetheart until after I got to know you a little better. Would I have asked you out if I knew you were a sweetheart? …Actually. I really might have."

Chan smiles at that, and then pauses, wondering if he should ask, before deciding to just go for it. He can apologise if Jisung gets upset after all.

"You said you've had your share of bad boys, and you told me that you're not a virgin. If you're comfortable sharing, what do you mean by that?"

"Oh, the exes talk already?" Jisung says loudly, but he’s very clearly joking around. "You go first then."

Chan sighs, should have seen that coming, but obliges. "Well, I got my first girlfriend when I was fifteen in Australia, which lasted five months?"

"That's a long time for fifteen-year-olds" Jisung comments.

"Yeah I guess so” Chan agrees idly before continuing. “Anyway, we broke up because she moved schools. I got another girlfriend when I was seventeen, but we broke up after like a month because I wasn't ready to have sex with her. Uhh, I then got my first boyfriend and we broke up when I moved to here from Australia since we agreed that neither of us would be able to maintain a long-distance relationship. And then that was kind of it. Now it's your turn."

He looks down at Jisung, since apparently during his recounting his gaze had wandered out over the view of the city, and sees that Jisung is looking at him, though when Chan meets his gaze, he grins and flutters his eyelashes.

“Am I the favourite one?”

Chan rolls his eyes but smiles and leans down to kiss him.

“Definitely.”

Giggling at his response, Jisung kisses back before pulling away.

"You flatterer."

Chan laughs, and they end up kissing a bit more before settling down again, Jisung playing absentmindedly with Chan's hands.

"So what about you? If you're not a virgin?" Chan prods, and after a second, Jisung sits up and crosses his legs under him. It’s clearly not an I’m-moving-away-because-I’m-uncomfortable-with-this-question movement, more just a way for them to talk easier since Chan now doesn’t have to crane his neck down to see Jisung, and Jisung doesn’t have to stare at his chin.

“Well” Jisung starts, picking some blades of grass off of the leather pants, "I've lived here pretty much my whole life so I don't have any dramatic moving away stories. I also don't really have a dramatic gay realisation either since I always kinda knew I was gay.” He pauses. “I guess I never really had a good boyfriend. I lost my virginity when I was seventeen, to another seventeen-year-old in my class; don't worry though. It was terrible."

Taken off guard by that, Chan barks out a laugh. “Really?”

"Oh yeah. We were both virgins so neither of us had a clue what we were doing. It was the most unsexy thing ever, especially when he had to Google how to prep me half way through ‘cause he wasn't sure if he was doing it right."

Chan roars with laughter, his shoulders shaking with the force of it. He barely manages to choke out a “that’s amazing” through it, and Jisung immediately shakes his head.

"No it _really_ wasn't."

Somehow Chan ends up laughing even harder at that, and this time Jisung laughs along with him, until they’re both settled enough that Jisung can continue.

"He was sweet though, we kept in contact after that. When I turned eighteen, I went out clubbing a bit more, had two... two? Yeah two one-night stands with a couple other guys. Thankfully they went a lot better. I guess the closest thing I ever had to a boyfriend was a 'bad boy' type guy I met at my other university."

Chan perks up at this, though he quickly realises that Jisung’s eyes have become a bit harder, and doesn’t dare interrupt.

“The thing is when I first met him I wasn't wearing my usual getup" he gestures to his clothes. "I went on one of the uni trips and it was up in the mountains, so I didn't want to bring any of my nice clothes since it was all hiking and obstacle courses. I had a couple of baby pink hoodies and stuff but that was it? The trip was for four or five days during induction week and we got to know each other really really well actually since we roomed together and were in the same group. We weren't official boyfriends or anything but we were def interested and half dating.”

Jisung sets his jaw, looking out at the view before he relaxes considerably.

“But when we got back and he realised that I had a very... specific style, he was a little weird about it. But other than his insecurity he was a great guy and real sweet. We ended up dating properly, but he always had an excuse to not introduce me to his friends and stuff. And while he didn't say anything bad about my fashion, he would ask me to ‘dress properly’ for a certain date and stuff like that. Eventually I kind of just got tired of it and dumped him. And that was that."

For a second Chan feels a hot stab of anger run through him, but he doesn’t let it fester. It’s in the past now, and there’s nothing that he can really do about it.

“Good on you” he says instead. “No matter how nice he was, if he couldn't accept you for how you are then he didn't deserve you in the first place."

Jisung looks at him and smiles, “yeah, that’s what I thought too.” And after a few seconds, he stops smiling as something enters his eyes, confusion? Or maybe realisation. Chan can’t tell.

"Wait, why does Dave think I'm a virgin anyway?"

Chan thinks for a moment, then shrugs. He doesn’t know either. "Maybe because you're only nineteen? Or maybe he just thinks that since you like men you’ve never been with anyone since no ‘real man’ would accept your fashion sense, which is dumb but so is Dave so."

Jisung laughs lightly in response. “He is _very_ dumb.”

Another few seconds of silence before Jisung perks up.

“You never said how you lost your virginity" he says, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "Come on, it _can't_ be any worse than mine."

Chan chuckles. "No I don't suppose so. Though it wasn’t what I wanted it to be."

"Oh? How so?"

"I was eighteen. My friend at the time set me up with one of his… uh, female friends, we ended up getting tipsy and when I told her that I’d never had sex she said if I wanted she could 'sort me out'. I was kind of embarrassed that I was still a virgin, which is stupid I know, but I agreed and she basically took the lead and gave me a lesson. Which was a little weird but also one of the most interesting lessons I've ever had."

Jisung practically cackles at the story, and Chan can feel the tips of his ears get warmer, though there's no malice in Jisung's face or voice at all.

"Oh my god that's _so_ good. I've never been with a woman obvs. What about your gay v-card?"

"I went to a gay bar with Minho, ended up with a guy there. Only one night stand I've ever had."

"Oooo. Not a fan?" Jisung asks and Chan shakes his head.

"Not really. Cheesy as it is, I like to have a connection with a person first."

Jisung nods. "I used to be like that, but I obviously went through my crazy 'fuck society' phase where I had a few one-night stands."

"What about now?" Chan asks before he can stop himself. Jisung very obviously sees straight through him too, and grins as he responds.

"Well. The idea of stopping that and having a connection with someone is beginning to look more and more appealing not gonna lie." He follows it up with a wink at the older, and once again Chan finds himself blushing, shoving at Jisung’s shoulder as his tormenter laughs at his misfortune. He can’t keep up the act for long though, and soon he gives in and gently pulls Jisung's head back onto his lap so he can play with his hair again.

After a while though, playing with Jisung’s hair somehow turns into Chan lightly tracing his fingers over Jisung's face, mapping out every curve and mark on the soft skin. Jisung’s not wearing makeup, so seems content to just let Chan do so, closing his eyes as Chan’s ever-gentle touch moves over them, before opening them again to watch as Chan moves his middle and index finger down the bridge of his nose. And when Chan reaches them, he runs his thumb downwards over Jisung’s lips, completely enamoured. He flicks his eyes towards Jisung’s, holding his gaze for a second, before leaning down, just as Jisung leans up, and then they’re kissing again.

“We should probably get back to school” Chan says when they’ve both pulled away, “I have a lecture in an hour.”

Jisung opens his eyes slowly, looking content enough to just stay there forever.

“Or you could skip?” He suggests. “Stay with me instead.”

The offer is tempting, Chan can’t deny that. To just stay up here, Jisung in his arms and the city stretching out in front of him, where all of his worries seem so much less pressing, a little escape from reality. But at the same time, he _really_ needs to go to this lecture, it’ll be exam season sooner than he wants it to be, and Music Enterprise is one of the modules he really needs to revise.

“Okay” he says quietly.

Jisung starts, clearly surprised at the answer, before laughing.

“Chan, you’re adorable” he says simply, before standing up and putting the leather jacket back on. “Come on, let’s get going then.”

The confusion must show on his face as he sits there, because Jisung smiles at him and bends down to help him pack away the picnic stuff.

“I wasn’t expecting you to say yes.”

Recovering, Chan starts packing away some of the containers as well, and grins at him. “Well why wouldn’t I?”

Jisung laughs and quickly kisses him again, and together they get the whole picnic put away back into his backpack. Chan swings it up onto his shoulders and gets up, following Jisung back to where the bike's parked. There’s a little bit of banter between them before they mount the bike and ride back to school. The air has already started to chill somewhat, and with the speeds they’re going, Chan’s glad he had the foresight to bring Jisung the leathers. Jisung would be freezing by now if he was still only in his shorts and crop top.

Instead of going straight back to the university -he has the time- he takes an early turn-off and pulls into the car park of Jisung’s student accommodation. There’s a couple of students out smoking by the front door, and they spare the pair a long look before eventually going back to their own conversation as Jisung pulls off the helmet, Chan following his lead. He doesn’t follow Jisung when he gets off the bike though, he still has a lecture to get to after all.

“Right” Jisung says, handing the helmet back to Chan. “I’m gonna go inside and take these leathers off, but I’ll be right back out to return them.”

“Keep them.”

“Are you sure?” Jisung asks, both looking and sounding reluctant to keep them. 

Chan looks at him for a second before shaking his head gently, but he’s smiling. “I plan on taking you out again, and you’ll need them for then. Plus, they don’t fit me.”

For a moment it looks like Jisung is going to argue with him, but before Chan can reaffirm that he’s fine with it, the fight leaves Jisung’s shoulders, and he shoots the older a genuine smile.

“That’s true, wouldn’t want you to have to carry them every time you want to take me out on a ride.” He pauses, then steps closer to the bike so that he and Chan are less than an arm’s length apart. “Thank you” and his words are soft and quiet and sincere, “not just for the clothes, I had a lot of fun today, with you.”

Something in Chan warms at the simple thank you, maybe it’s the look on Jisung’s face, or maybe he’s just _that_ whipped. Who knows? But when he leans down to kiss Jisung, it’s slow and passionate, and if Jisung was to invite him inside right then and there, or ask him to drive him anywhere, Chan doesn’t think he’d be able to say no.

Thankfully Jisung doesn’t ask, he just says goodbye, and walks into his building, leaving Chan to put his helmet back on and drive to his music enterprise lecture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter everyone, time got away from me a little!


	9. Life Gave Me Some Lemons

Chan is woken up by his phone ringing.

At first he thinks it’s his alarm, and almost turns it off, only just waking up enough to see a caller ID flashing on his screen and not the small image of the clock he’s so used to seeing whenever he wakes up. Woojin’s cheerful smile looks down on him from his little profile picture, and Chan would roll his eyes if he wasn’t busy rubbing the sleep out of them. Honestly, he has half a mind to ignore the call, pretend he never saw it and go back to sleep. He doesn’t have class today and had told Woojin last night that he wanted a lie-in that morning. It’s a Monday too, so double-ugh in Chan’s professional opinion. Despite the mild annoyance he feels from being woken up so suddenly, he’s confused as to what the hell Woojin is even calling him about; they don’t call very often, usually just using texts unless one of their hands is full or their busy with something else, so why?

Deciding to just get it over with, he’s awake now so he might as well, he swipes the little green circle and puts the phone to his ear before Woojin decides to just hang up.

“Hello?” He slurs, voice deep and gravelly with being used for the first time that day.

“Something’s wrong” Woojin says.

Chan is _immediately_ much more awake than he was before, concern washing over him as he sits up in bed, pushing his phone more firmly against his ear.

“What happened?” He says, tone broadcasting his worry loud and clear.

There’s an agonising couple of seconds where Woojin doesn’t say anything, which Chan uses to swing his legs over the end of his mattress and start digging through his bedside drawers for some socks and clean underwear.

“Hyunjin is freaking out” Woojin _finally_ continues, and for a split second, Chan is almost relieved. Almost. Because Hyunjin freaks out about a lot of things, things that usually can be fixed very easily. But he can sense there’s something different about this, and that’s confirmed for him with Woojin’s next sentence.

“I think he’s on the verge of a panic attack, we can’t get much out of him, something about Jeongin.”

Something cold and sharp stabs into Chan’s chest and _twists_.

“Where are you?” He practically barks into the phone, trying not to freak out himself, as he stands up off of the bed and puts his clothes on with renewed vigour.

“We’re at The Gallery” Woojin responds, “second floor, waiting for you and a couple other people.”

“I’ll be right there” Chan says, voice grim, and he finishes pulling on the black sweatpants and grey hoodie, slipping on his shoes as he grabs his keys, and sprinting down the stairs since it’s faster than taking the elevator. He keeps up the fast pace all the way through the car park, jamming the keys into his engine as he pulls on his helmet, and slams the bike into reverse so he can get out of the space, before pulling out and onto the street.

* * *

When he gets there, he spots the group’s motorcycles all parked in a cluster near the The Gallery’s doors, and quickly parks his bike alongside them, dismounts, and runs into the café. He manoeuvres round the people in the entrance, taking a right and practically vaulting up the stairs before jogging to their usual spot in the upstairs section near the corner.

It’s obvious where they are, because even from the top of the stairs, Chan can make out the familiar figures of most of the biker society, as well as Jisung, Felix, and Seungmin all standing around Hyunjin, who as he gets closer, sees is sitting on the floor with his knees up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs, looking distinctly pale.

“What’s going on?” He says loudly, out of breath, and draws everyone’s attention to him.

To his complete and utter shock, Evan just laughs, shaking his head, and Chan’s brain stops as it attempts to find out _why_ Evan would be laughing at such a serious situation.

“Nothing really dude, Sam’s just bein' ridiculous.”

As utterly confused as he is at the change of pace, a part of Chan is so relieved that, for now, nothing seems to be too wrong.

“What?” He asks, feeling very much out of the loop.

To his left, Woojin rolls his eyes, arms crossed over his chest as he looks down at Hyunjin, who has yet to look up at anyone since Chan’s arrival.

“Evan’s not completely wrong” Woojin explains, “it’s definitely not a great situation, but Hyunjin is also very much overreacting just a little.”

Somehow even more confused, Chan decides to abandon the conversation and give into his instincts that are basically screaming at him to make sure Hyunjin is alright. So he walks past the group and slowly kneels down next to Hyunjin, who doesn’t react to the sudden proximity at all from what Chan can see.

"Hyunjin? What's wrong?" Chan asks gently, not wanting to touch him yet until he knows what’s happening.

Rather unhelpfully, Hyunjin doesn’t explain anything, instead just saying "I'm gonna die... I'm gonna... My life is over... My mom... Oh god... My mom is gonna kill me." Under his breath while he stares at his knees.

Even _more_ confused now, Chan turns and catches sight of Minho standing close to Hyunjin’s other side, and when they lock eyes, the question shining brightly in his face, Minho just shrugs.

“Jeongin got a tattoo.”

After a second of processing the casual statement, a wave of understanding crashes into Chan, as well as some annoyance about worrying so much over an overreaction, but he decides to ignore it and focus on the former. He can see why Hyunjin is worried, his parents, though especially his mother, while being disapproving of Hyunjin’s hobbies, also know he’s nineteen and is going to be a young adult. They’re generally happy to let him do pretty much whatever, as long as he abides by their curfew and some other rules that Chan can’t name off the top of his head right now. However, one of those rules was to _not_ let Jeongin follow in his footsteps. Jeongin is the golden child, adored by everyone for being such a cute and talented kid, and Chan can understand that Hyunjin’s parents wouldn’t be happy to see him tattooed, riding a motorcycle around, and drinking underage.

Heck, Hyunjin agrees with them. He loves Jeongin _so_ much, praising him and aggressively mother-henning him when their parents aren’t around. He constantly tries to teach Jeongin to ‘do as I say, not what I do’, to focus on his schoolwork, to not get tattoos since it might hurt his chances of becoming a teacher, to not drink till he’s legal age, to not focus too much on motorbikes and get a driving licence for a car instead since it’s much more practical and respected than a motorcycle.

It rarely works though. Jeongin looks at his older brother like he hung the goddamn stars. He’s constantly trying to learn more about bikes, hanging out with the gang, and saying how he wants a tattoo, because he wants to be like Hyunjin. It’s honestly real cute and the biker society often make fun of Hyunjin, teasing him that they don’t see what Jeongin does in him, to which Hyunjin always just shrugs and grins with a ‘me neither’ because he’s supposed to be the older, rebellious child, and Jeongin is the good one, the favourite child. Hyunjin would probably kill to keep that the same, and now Jeongin apparently has a tattoo, undoing all of Hyunjin’s hard work and bringing one of his worst fears to life.

Come to think of it, maybe Hyunjin isn’t overreacting too much after all. 

"What type of tattoo?" he asks eventually, ignoring the strangled noise Hyunjin makes at the question. Though he does put a hand on the younger’s shoulder for a few seconds to try and comfort him.

"He won't tell us" Michelle says with a one-shoulder shrug, she doesn’t seem particularly sympathetic, but that’s probably because she doesn’t hang out with them as often as ‘Korea’s Gucci Gang’ do.

Surprisingly, that manages to make Hyunjin look up, frustration and desperation in his face and eyes.

"Because I don't _know_! Okay!?” He practically yells before quieting down a little. “All I know is that I got a phone call from my tattoo artist saying that earlier today Jeongin came in and asked for a tattoo, she was going to say no because she knows me and knows I would kill him. But Jeongin apparently threatened her? Or something? Saying that he was going to go to a different tattoo artist who might not know what they're doing if she didn’t do it. I dunno. Plus, it’s not really her choice to refuse customers when they are of legal age and can pay.”

It makes sense, Chan knows Jeongin’s gone with Hyunjin to see his older brother get tattoos a couple of times, so he’s seen her work first-hand, of course he would go there first.

“Have you spoken to Jeongin about it yet?” He asks.

Hyunjin slumps, looking defeated. “No, I called him but he’s in class. He’s coming up soon though because I called the school and said he needed to come home for a ‘family emergency’. I paid for a taxi to pick him up, just a case of when he arrives now though.”

"Hey, could be worse right?” Arin perks up from where he’s sitting on one of the table stools, “least little Tate’s all grown up now.”

Before Chan can say something, Changbin nudges him and says that isn't helping, to which Arin just shrugs, failing to see why it’s such a big deal.

“Anyway, love’d to stay and all but I gotta peace out, seminar in like ten minutes. Good luck, Sam!”

Hyunjin acknowledges the goodbye with a pained sounding groan, while everyone else calls out their own goodbyes to Arin, who waves at them all before jogging away and down the stairs.

A flash of pink moves in Chan’s peripheral, and on Hyunjin’s other side, Jisung kneels down and puts his arm around Hyunjin's shoulder, pulling him closer to his side.

“Your mom isn't gonna kill you Jin,” he says slowly, with a tone which is both calming, but also brooking no argument. “Jeongin did this all on his own. I'm sure that she'll understand that if you could have stopped him then you would have. Wouldn't you?"

Hyunjin nods, “of course I would have.” And Jisung smiles

"See? You'll be fine."

Hyunjin doesn’t look particularly convinced, but he does lean into Jisung’s side, and Jisung presses his face into Hyunjin’s black hair, smiling at Chan from over the top of his head, and Chan smiles back, happy to see him despite the circumstances.

A few minutes pass, agonisingly slow, before Jeongin walks in from the stairs, looking very nervous.

Before anyone can react, or even say hello, Hyunjin immediately jumps up, stalks across the room, and grabs him by the shoulders.

"What were you _thinking_!?"

Whatever argument Jeongin looks like he might have had shatters at the loud question, the utter pain and betrayal, but also note of concern, ripping from Hyunjin’s chest.

"I'm sorry Jinnie,” Jeongin says, sounding very small and sad. “I didn't mean to go behind your back, but I knew you would never let me get one and you _know_ how much I wanted one for so long now."

Chan and Jisung get up, following the rest of the group, who’ve moved closer to the pair to keep up with what’s going on.

At the answer, Hyunjin just seems to get even more annoyed.

“You still should have said something!”

He takes in another breath, probably preparing to go off, but Changbin stops him by putting his hand on Hyunjin's arm and telling him to calm down. For a second it looks like Hyunjin isn’t going to listen, but he does quiet, though his eyes remain hard and focused on his little brother.

“We should probably leave them alone to sort it out” Woojin says loudly, ever the voice of reason, and everyone agrees with varying levels of reluctance.

They end up heading back downstairs and then to the parking lot, hanging around the bikes. There’s not much conversation outside of greetings, and talking about what could possibly be happening, or what the tattoo is. Chan also finds himself explaining to Jisung, Seungmin and Felix exactly _why_ Hyunjin is reacting the way he is, and the three of them exchange a look that Chan can’t decipher, so he doesn’t ask. After another minute or so, Seungmin pulls away from the group, looking concerned.

“I’m going to go make sure they're okay” is all he says, and leaves, going back inside.

No one stops him, though Chan can hear someone asking under their breath what makes him so special, he doesn’t say anything about it though.

“Don’t you have a seminar, Felix?” Jisung asks suddenly, looking up from his phone.

Felix pauses before taking out his own phone and checking the screen.

“Fuck.”

And with that, Felix just takes off, calling out a ‘thank you, Jisung’ and ‘bye’ over his shoulder as he sprints towards the music building, Chan also hears something about calling him later that’s aimed at Jisung, who gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up before the other disappears.

Another ten minutes or so slowly pass. Chan would have gone up already to see what was taking so long if it wasn’t for the fact during the waiting time, Jisung had jumped up on Chan’s bike and sat sidesaddle on it, hooking his legs around the small of Chan’s back and pulling him closer so that he can play with his hair. It’s sort of calming in a way, but it doesn’t pull Chan’s attention away from what could be going on upstairs away very much.

After what feels like forever, but is in reality, another ten minutes, Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin appear at The Gallery doors, and something settles in Chan’s chest when he realises none of them look upset.

“You sorted now?” He asks

The three of them exchange a quick glance, before Hyunjin turns back to Chan and gives a quick nod.

“I think so. Jeongin’s gonna call my tattoo artist and apologise, then also tell our mom what he did.”

Chan nods, happy to see that Hyunjin seems to be accepting that there’s not much he can do about the tattoo other than damage control.

"Is the tattoo at least good?" Changbin asks suddenly, voice cautious.

“I wanna see it too” Minho agrees, substantially less carefully.

Jeongin looks at Hyunjin, who nods once, and Chan pats Jisung’s knee to let him know he wants to be released. Everyone then slowly crowds around Jeongin, who once he’s sure everyone can see, rolls up his sleeve to show the black ink now decorating about two-thirds of his shoulder. It’s covered in cling film, but thankfully still easily visible.

It's a fairly complicated design, a half-compass half-clock with the north-east side shattering and turning into a small flock of simple, black birds, probably ravens or crows. There’s some triangle and circle detailing around the back, and the north point turns into the words “carpe diem” in scrawled cursive. It’s honestly beautiful, and the small detailing is incredibly well done, and clearly Chan’s not the only one that thinks so if the quiet praise and “ahh’s” of everyone else are anything to go by.

“Each direction of the compass represents a member of my family” Jeongin explains, almost bashfully, making everyone ‘aww’ and coo at him for being sappy and yet so very cute.

Idly, Chan realises that the raven side of the compass must then represent Hyunjin, because of Hyunjin’s obvious love of corvids. He also notices that in a small way, Jeongin’s tattoo now matches all of Hyunjin’s. It’s clear that Jeongin has put a lot of thought into this tattoo and tried to get something that looks nice, but also that means something.

“I really like it” he finds himself saying, and hears everyone agree with him. “Though you really should have told someone before you got it.”

Jeongin dips his head and mutters an “I know”, ashamed. But smiles when Woojin ruffles his hair and says that at least he knows not to do it again, and didn't just do it out of rebellion. It gets a general murmur of agreement from everyone else.

“So, what’s gonna happen now?” Chan asks, curious, “you kind of pulled Jeongin out of school for no reason, what did you even say the family emergency was?”

“There was a reason” Hyunjin says immediately, voice a little hard.

Chan’s about to apologise when Seungmin puts a hand on Hyunjin’s arm, who immediately deflates a bit.

“We’ve let it go, he’s learned his lesson.” Seungmin’s voice is soft and quiet, but Chan still hears it regardless. And at the reminder, Hyunjin nods and backs down, exchanging a look with Seungmin that Chan, try as he might, can’t decipher.

“I’m gonna take Jeongin home so we can tell our parents what happened” Hyunjin says eventually, noticeably calmer.

“I hate to be that guy, but don’t you have a lecture?” Woojin asks, and Hyunjin pulls a face, but before he can say anything in return, Jisung’s waving a hand casually.

“I can take notes for you and scan your card so you’re not marked absent, if you want?”

Hyunjin breathes out a small sigh of relief and thanks him before handing Jisung his student card.

“Right, now we have to go. Bye everyone, I’ll see you when I see you next I guess.”

Everyone calls out their own goodbyes as Hyunjin gives Jeongin another helmet and swinging himself up onto his bike, Jeongin close behind him.

“Well that was fun, but I should also probably be going” Michelle says, next to her, Noah nods, and they say their own goodbyes before moving away. Closely followed by Evan, leaving only Chan, Jisung, Minho, Seungmin and Changbin standing in the car park.

“When’s your next lecture again?” Chan asks Jisung, who looks at him, tilting his head to the side for a second in an attempt to remember his schedule.

“Like an hour and a half from now I think.”

That’s enough time, Chan thinks, before turning to the rest of the group. “Do you guys wanna get some food in The Gallery or something?” Chan, in his mad dash out of the house this morning, had not eaten breakfast, and it’s beginning to become very apparent from the twinges in his stomach.

There’s a general consensus of agreement, but Minho sighs, aggressively blowing air out of his mouth and he rolls his eyes.

“I’ve got a seminar in half an hour so I’m not gonna be able to get food, but I’ll hang out for a little bit before I go.”

“You can have some of mine if it arrives fast enough” Chan says automatically, and Minho beams at him, practically skipping back into The Gallery as they all file in through the doors.

“So Seungmin” Changbin drawls as they’re waiting in line to order.

Clearly taken aback by the sudden usage of his name, Seungmin turns to face Changbin and gives a little ‘hm?’ to show that he’s listening.

“What happened in there with Hyunjin and Jeongin? Anything crazy?”

Before Seungmin can say anything in response, Woojin slaps Changbin’s arm, making him cry out, mostly in affront than any real pain.

“Leave it alone man” Woojin chastises gently, and as a retort, Changbin sticks his tongue out at the older male, making everyone else laugh at the stupidity of the situation.

As everyone else starts talking about food and classes, Jisung slips his hand into Chan’s and leans his head against the other’s shoulder. Chan rests his head on Jisung’s in return and breathes out, ruffling the blonde locks under his mouth and making Jisung giggle quietly.

“You okay?”

Chan almost smiles at the note of concern in Jisung’s voice and nods, knowing that although Jisung can’t see it, he’ll be able to feel the movement against his own head.

“Yeah I’m fine, just glad it didn’t end up being something more serious.”

Jisung hums in agreement and cranes his neck backwards to give Chan a quick kiss before joining in with the other’s conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah jeez I'm sorry this is so late guys, with everything going on time got away from me a little bit. Regular upload schedule should resume after this though ^^


	10. Your American Tan

“Can you skip this song? I lowkey hate it.”

Minho laughs, a sharp but genuine sound and shakes his head a little.

“Sure man.”

Chan’s only half paying attention to the way Minho walks over to where his phone is laying down and skips through a couple tracks until the quiet but still clearly audible notes of what Chan recognises as Beachboy by McCafferty start playing from Minho’s Bluetooth speaker. Chan doesn’t know any lyrics besides the chorus, but clearly Minho knows all of them with the way he sings them under his breath as he walks back to his spot.

He, Minho and Woojin had decided that Saturday morning to meet up and work on their bikes together since they were kind of overdue a session by now. That’s how they ended up in Minho’s parent’s garage, covered in bits of grease and polish, though thankfully not sweat; Minho had opened the garage door when they came in and hasn’t shut it since then, and the breeze that flows in from outside is appreciated. Minho’s parents live on a hill with only a couple of neighbours, so there’s no one to see them, and the view of the slowly goldening sky as afternoon turns into evening is a pleasant one.

Until this point they’ve worked in mainly relative quiet, besides some bike talk, all having something that they needed to do. Woojin had needed to wrench-check his mounting hardware and just look over his brake calipers in general, as well as a couple of other small things, and Minho had needed to check the tension in his drive belt. They had both finished about half an hour ago though and started working on polishing their bikes, and the smell of it wafts around the air of the garage. Chan meanwhile hasn’t finished his task, as he realised earlier that week that he wanted to work on his fuel lines. His weren't awful before this by any means, he just likes being on top of his bike maintenance. He'd inspected the lines and clamps, replaced the chafed lines, and was now working on tightening said clamps.

“You almost done over there, Chan?” Woojin asks, his head poking over the top of his bike seat.

The question startles Chan out of his working concentration and it takes him a second to process the words spoken to him.

“Uh yeah, all good, clamps almost done, then I can start polishing as well.”

Woojin hums in acknowledgement, but doesn’t look away from Chan or his bike.

“You know” he continues after a little while, “you should really think about getting a new bike soonish. I know you love this one, but it’s getting a little old at this point. I know it starts like ninety percent of the time but it hasn’t been sounding it’s healthiest for a few months now.”

Chan sighs and almost runs a hand through his hair before he remembers all the shit his fingers are covered in and stops himself.

“I know” he says, “the flywheel flange has really been giving me some trouble, but as long as it doesn’t deteriorate any more than it already has it _should_ be alright. And yeah, I’ve been thinking about it recently, getting a new bike that is, but… You know, like you said I love this thing and it was my dad’s, that’s not the kind of thing I can just forget you know?”

“I mean” Minho speaks up, sitting back down on his overturned bucket, they’d ran out of chairs, “you can keep the bike, it's just not going to be roadworthy in a few years is all.”

“Then I'll just have to be careful for that few years then.”

The three of them laugh, and go back to working on their respective bikes. Chan takes the time to give his clamps one last check-over and decides to finally move onto polishing his bike. The Ducati is almost spotless, as washing and polishing it is one of the things Chan keeps especially on top of, but he knows he’s not going to have much time to keep up with his regular routine during the exams. Still, he looks over it quickly for any obvious dirt, and removes any smudges left over from his hands with a water-soaked wipe, before drying it with a towel so it’s ready for the polishing.

Moving smoothly and efficiently, Chan puts the polish on the applicator and begins to apply the wax as evenly as he can, using gentle and overlapping circular motions over smaller parts of the bike at a time. It's a soft wax that Chan's been using for years, one he knows will protect his paint. He does this for a few minutes before he ultimately finds himself speaking up again.

“It’s a shame the rest of the gang couldn't make it.”

It had been a bit short notice for a lot of the gang, Evan had said he was going to come, but then something had come up with Becca and he’d had to cancel. So it ended up just being the three of them. Hyunjin had given some half-explained excuse about being busy that they’d all immediately figured out as a lie, and debated heavily when Chan first arrived. The running theory ended up being that he was hanging out and trying to talk with Seungmin after what happened with them.

Minho huffs a laugh.

"Yeah but you know how Changbin's parents are, if they kept him on any tighter a leash with schoolwork he'd die of asphyxiation."

“That was an odd and slightly disturbing metaphor” Woojin says, making a face, and Minho gives a light shrug.

“Not wrong though.”

Woojin clearly can’t disagree with that and reluctantly agrees, even Chan finds himself nodding along with the statement. None of them are exactly happy with Changbin’s situation, but there’s little to nothing that they can do about it so.

“I mean with the exams I don’t think he would have come anyway” Minho continues absent-mindedly, “double major and everything. When are the music exams?”

“Well the essay is due soon-ish, and then we have a multiple-choice exam, two practical pieces and a full two-hour written exam” Woojin explains. Chan knows that both he and Woojin are almost done with the essay, having helped one another out with their respective questions, and are spending pretty much all their free time at their apartment studying together. They’ve also given their first-year binders to Jisung and Felix to help them out as well, with the promise to not get them all flagged for plagiarism.

Chan’s not too worried about the multiple-choice exam since it’s not that high a percentage for his grade. He’s already got his piece for the first practical pretty much done, and is about a quarter of the way through his piece for the second. The two-hour exam however worries him, and he knows that he’s been studying particularly hard for it. Woojin tells him that it’ll be fine, but Chan can’t shake the anxiety he has over it, he’s never done particularly well with longer, important exams.

“How long is the art exam?” Woojin asks, and from the intonation in his voice Chan can tell he’s already asked the question and is repeating himself because Chan hasn’t answered. Whoops.

“Uhh” he says quickly, showing that he’s thinking about it, trying to remember what Hyunjin and Jisung have told him. “I think the first-year exam is fifteen hours over three days, and the second-year main exam is twenty hours over four days, but don’t quote me on that.”

“Hyunjin’s already complaining that he’s gonna die.”

Chan and Woojin laugh at the comment, well aware of how much the younger male had been blowing up the general chat with his complaints and prepatory-work progress.

“Half my shit is just essays” Minho pipes up once they’ve settled again. He’s taken a break from polishing his bike and is just leaning back on the bucket, resting his shoulders against the counter behind him. “Like it’s fine I guess, I have one exam, but at the same time, _ugh_. I hate writing reports about L2s or whatever. I don’t know how many times I can say ‘people who learn English as a secondary language as an adult are more aware of mistakes’, like, the people who mark this must get so bored, I don’t know how they do it.”

“Make it more interesting then” Woojin offers, a teasing lilt to his voice, “then you’ll stand out more.”

Minho makes a ‘fair’ gesture and grins, but doesn’t say anything in response about it, instead opting to backtrack a little.

“Your guy’s music exams finish pretty early though right? Like a couple weeks before most others are done?”

Chan nods at the same time Woojin says “yeah they do.”

Honestly it’s one of the things Chan is really happy about, because both he and Jisung take music their exams will be finishing about the same time, and after that Jisung only has his art exam over the three days, which he can’t really revise for since it’s just a physical project, so they’ll be able to spend some time together essentially stress free. It’s very much ideal, because they were talking earlier about having to cut back the time they met up in favour of trying to pass the finals with at least decent grades.

Speaking of Jisung.

“So how are you and Jisung by the way?” Minho asks, leaning forward so he can take up polishing his bike again.

Chan hesitates for only a second, pausing his movements and consequently, halting the waxing; trying to rearrange his thoughts a little before he answers.

“I think we’re great actually. Last week we went out to dinner and talked about where we’re at, and we both agreed that we’re really happy with each other, despite the circumstances.”

“Oh shit you guys had the ‘what are we’ talk?”

A little exasperated, but mostly amused, at Minho’s outburst, Chan shakes head.

“Not really. We’ve both been referring to each other as boyfriends for a little while now, it was more of a… Like a ‘hey, is everything okay with you, I know the whole bet is a lot of pressure and I wanted to make sure you’re doing alright’ kind of talk.”

“And _are_ you doing okay?” Minho pushes. “The bet was made in January or whatever-”

“January fourteenth” Chan interrupts, the date having been burned into his memory, “three months and seventeen days ago.”

Minho balks a little and gives a nervous laugh. “Wow, you really just know that huh?”

Aware of the discomfort in the atmosphere, Chan does his best to loosen his posture and send Minho what is hopefully, a calming smile.

“It’s hard not to. With finals coming up next month and the whole time-limit thing Dave refuses to expand on, I’ve been a little bit more aware of time passing than normal.”

“Which is totally fair” Woojin pipes up, voice gentle, “it’s a hard situation. I asked Changbin about it the other day and he also knows how many days it’s been, it might be some sort of coping thing for the two of you.”

“Maybe” Chan agrees, “I’m just particularly aware of it now because we don’t have time to plan anything with the stress of finals season, so if Dave asks for the video before his exams start, like, what am I supposed to do?”

“I mean” Minho says slowly, “he does an engineering degree right? So his exams and stuff start way later than ours, I’m pretty sure if you were like, ‘dude I can’t, I have exams and Jisung doesn’t wanna meet up so he can revise,’ he’d understand there’s not much you can really do about that. And by then his exams will’ve started, so _hopefully_ he’ll be too busy to remember to hound you about it.”

Woojin tilts his head to the side a little and looks from Minho to Chan. “He has a point. You might have longer than you think.”

“Hopefully” Chan responds, a little curt. He doesn’t mean to be so pessimistic, he’s just so worried that it’s hard to hold onto the silver linings sometimes. Thankfully Minho and Woojin seem to understand that he’s not trying to be difficult, and send him twin small, reassuring smiles. He does his best to reciprocate it, and they lapse into silence again as they continue to work on their bikes.

Chan finishes the waxing and sits back, stretching his arms above his head and revelling in the way his spine pops in relief. It'll take about seven or so minutes for the wax to set, and there's not really much he can do until that point. Still he's glad for the break, for the opportunity to give his arms a rest, and pulls out his phone (after washing his hands) to check his social medias. Though that plan quickly goes out of the window when he sees he has text from Jisung. It was sent almost half an hour ago, so thankfully not too long, and he clicks on the notification to open it.

 **Jisung <3**  
so how's the motorbike stuff going?

 **Chris**  
Going great! Will probs be done in another hour ish

There's a minute where Chan actually checks his social medias, until the tell-tale vibration of his phone indicates that Jisung's texted him back.

 **Jisung <3**  
niiice, im making food!

 **Chris**  
Oh? What type?

 **Jisung <3**  
spaghetti

 **Chris**   
!! Sounds amazing, I'm probs gonna make a chicken salad when I get in.

 **Jisung <3   
**alright mr healthy no need to flex lmao

 **Chris**   
🤣🤣🤣 You can also make a chicken salad

 **Jisung <3**  
but im making spaghetti

 **Chris**  
Tragic

 **Jisung <3**  
skdjfkdgfdwsdf

Chan finds himself smiling (and probably looking like an idiot) at his phone for the next few minutes as he and Jisung exchange messages, talking about food and eventually moving onto exams and when they can next meet up for a study session.

Almost as if Woojin can sense there’s a conversation about exams, he pipes up after a couple more minutes, breaking the silence that had descended on the garage. Besides Minho’s music of course.

“I personally can’t believe the paper music exam is at six at night.”

Chan looks up at the same time as Minho to where Woojin’s stretching his arms, looking pretty much done with his bike.

“Yeah that seems weirdly late” Minho agrees, making a face. “That’s like the very last slot.”

“I’m pretty sure it _is_ the last slot” Chan says, sending Jisung a ‘talk to you later ♥’ text and putting his phone back into his pocket. “We got an email yesterday saying that we needed to check our exam timetables because there’d been a change with it.”

“Six at night” Woojin repeats, shaking his head slightly in disbelief. “It’ll be finished by eight, that’s stupid levels of late for an exam.”

“Not if you finish an hour early” Minho pipes up cheerily, and Woojin huffs a laugh.

“That’s true.”

“I’m probably not going to” Chan laments, standing up so that he can bring the polish over to his work station. “I never do well with long exams.”

He feels more than sees Woojin roll his eyes.

“You’ll be _fine_. You always get yourself super worked up over nothing and then come out with a great mark.”

Chan moves his hand in a ‘ehhhh’ gesture and Woojin responds by rolling his eyes again. Chan ignores him in favour of sitting back down and lightly swiping a finger over the body of his bike. Nothing smears, so Chan decides that it's ready to take the wax off. The other side might still be not ready, but by the time Chan’s done with this one it’ll definitely have dried.

“So are you gonna eat early or after it’s over?” Minho asks, and it takes Chan a second to realise what he’s even talking about.

“Probably gonna have a late lunch and eat dinner after I get back home, I don’t like the thought of eating a larger meal before the exam” Woojin responds idly, handing Minho the towel he’s aggressively gesturing for.

“Same probably” Chan chimes in, putting the polish on a clean cloth, “or I might grab something before I head home, depends how I feel.”

He begins to buff off the wax, moving on practically muscle memory since he’s done this so many times before. It’s one of the things that always calms him down, just working away on his bike, making the red paint practically shimmer under his hands.

“I mean at least after that you’ll be totally done” Minho continues, “I’ll still have like two essays and my ‘early English’ exam by then. And the exam’s three and a half fucking hours! _Three and a half_!”

“Oof” Woojin says with a wince, Chan agrees with the sentiment.

“Do you think you’re ready for it?” Chan asks.

“Do I _fuck_!”

Try as he might, Chan can’t help but laugh at that, though he does try his best to reassure his friend… through the residual chuckles.

“I mean you have over a month before it right? That’s plenty of time to learn all the stuff you’re not as confident on. Make appointments with all your lecturers, book all their free time and relearn the whole course!”

He’s joking of course, and it seems to work as Minho laughs along with him.

“I just might to be honest.”

“Your poor lecturers” Woojin says, voice full of faux-sympathy, and Chan sniggers into the back of his hand when Minho’s offended squawk of ‘ _you bitch!’_ echoes throughout the garage.

It’s about eight by the time Chan’s bike is done, and with thanks and goodbyes to Minho’s parents, Chan and Woojin find themselves saddling up, ready for the ride home.

“If I drive through a mud puddle or something after all this work I’m going to be so upset” Woojin says as he’s putting his gloves on.

Chan laughs and shrugs one of his shoulders, swinging himself up onto his bike. “With that attitude you’d never ride again.”

The older male chuckles and shakes his head.

“It wouldn’t get that bad, I just want it to be at least a week before I see even a speck of dirt on it.”

“Can’t argue with that I guess” Chan agrees, putting on his helmet, out of the corner of his eye he sees Woojin do the same.

With a nod at one another, they both take off out of the driveway and down the road.


	11. I'll Chew You Up

The next six weeks pass in a blur for Chan. The first three are studying, revision lectures, catching up with his seminar leaders for tutoring, doing his physical music piece and his multiple-choice exam, and in between those, trying his best to catch up with his friends and Jisung whenever he can. The three after that is more of the same, but the rest of the university starts to catch up with the music program and everything becomes completely and totally about exam season. The library is always packed whenever Chan goes in, lecturer’s office hours become longer and you have to book a slot, and he can _never_ find the goddamn textbook he wants. The campus is heavy with finals tension, and Chan finds himself spending longer and longer in the university grounds and not at home, whether that be because he’s waiting for his study session with his lecturer, or because he has to use the program on the school computers. Especially during the last stretch, Chan finds himself pounding energy drinks and cups of coffee one after another, trying to cram as much information into his head as it can fit. He doesn’t like coffee, and never drinks it, but it makes him feel better, like he’s being productive, so he drinks it anyway.

The six weeks in the moment felt like forever, every minute dragging on way more than normal, but now that Chan’s finally at his last exam, he realises that he honestly can’t remember much of said six weeks at all. Looking back it all went by so quickly. Weird.

He sits in the exam hall, staring down at his paper, half an hour left on the clock at the front of the room. He’s so tired. He doesn’t sleep super well at the best of times but with the added pressure that comes with finals week, and this exam that he’s been dreading for so long, his sleeping has been spotty at best. Despite that though, for the first hour and a half of this exam he was feeling, surprisingly, just fine, it’s just this last half an hour where his exhaustion seems to have finally caught up with him.

The temptation to just… give up and go to sleep is suddenly so heavy that it’s crushing, and if Chan had any weaker of a will-power he might just have done that, but it's his last exam, and as soon as it’s done, he's free. So, against his body’s wishes he powers through, despite how he can barely concentrate on his own thoughts never mind the paper in front of him. Last thirty minutes, he can do this. He taps his pen against his hand and finishes the question he’s been agonising over for the last ten minutes, and as he’s turning the page, Changbin catches his eyes from across the room.

‘You okay?’ He mouths, and Chan would tell him to not let the staff catch him talking lest they both fail, but he can’t, so he just shoots the younger a tiny nod and goes back to his paper. Woojin had already left half an hour ago with a similar tiny nod at the two of them; Woojin can get away with leaving an hour early because he’s actually capable of physically taking care of himself and staying calm throughout the duration of the exam. That and he never does the bonus questions. Yet still always gets a good grade. Bastard.

Chan’s not stupid, he can tell that Changbin is done, that he finished ages ago, but is waiting for him. He wishes that he could just tell Changbin to leave, that he’s fine, but he has to be silent, so he doesn't. The next ten minutes crawls by, and after checking over his answers three times, Chan thinks that he finally might be done, and before he can change his mind, signals the exam invigilator over to collect his paper. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Changbin do the same, confirming Chan’s suspicion that Changbin was in fact waiting for him.

The man picks up Chan’s paper and tells him he can go, and trying to make as little noise as possible as to not disturb the people still working, he picks up his bag and walks out of the exam hall. Changbin joins him and they walk side by side, but don’t say anything to one another until they’re outside the building.

“You really didn’t have to wait for me” Chan says eventually, breaking the silence.

Changbin looks like he's about to deny it, but suddenly stops short, and his face relaxes a small amount.

“I was just a little worried about you, you haven’t been doing super well.”

His automatic reaction is to say that he’s fine, but Chan knows the words would ring hollow for the both of them. He knows he looks awful, and all he wants is to go home and sleep for the next four years.

“I appreciate it man” he says instead, and Changbin smiles and puts a hand on his shoulder. “We should be heading home though.”

Changbin nods, but Chan can tell there’s something gnawing at him.

“What is it?”

The younger male makes a face and then blows all of his breath out in a harsh exhale, seemingly having an argument with himself in his head.

“Are you sure you wanna be driving home?” He says eventually, “because I can drop you off and you can get your bike in the morning. I just don’t think you should be driving when you’re this tired.”

Despite the slight mother-henning, Chan finds himself smiling at Changbin’s concern, and shakes his head.

“Nah it’ll be fine mate, don’t worry. I know the road home like the back of my hand. I already feel way better being out of that stuffy exam hall anyway. Fresh air is a wonderful thing.”

Changbin laughs softly at that, and Chan realises that they’ve reached where their bikes are parked. The sun is just starting to set and rays of its golden light peek out through the clouds, at least he’ll have a pretty backdrop on his way home.

“You wanna ride together till the turnoff?” Changbin asks, and Chan nods.

“Sure, we can just peel off from each other after that.”

There are two ways to Changbin’s house, the one he’s proposing is a little longer than his normal route, but it does mean that they’ll get to ride together for ten minutes or so before Changbin has to turn off. Chan would ask why he wants to ride together tonight, but he feels like he already knows the answer, and he’s glad for the company, regardless of the reason why it was offered.

They put their gloves and other leathers on. Chan didn’t bring his riding pants, as usual, but he is wearing his riding jacket and not his normal leather one, the one given to him by his dad. This one is stiffer and much less comfortable due to the extra padding, but his regular jacket needed to be dry-cleaned so he’ll just have to deal with it. Once they’re both suited up they swing themselves up onto their respective saddles and start the engines, Changbin’s deep, throaty revs almost completely blanketing the higher whine of Chan’s. Thankfully, once again his bike starts with no issue despite the same weird click he’s become so used to, and the slightly harsher vibrations that come with it having to work harder to get going. But before he puts his helmet on, Chan pulls out his earphones and puts some music on. He doesn’t normally listen to music very often when he’s driving around, but the loud beat combined with the fresh air will be enough to keep him awake until he gets home.

They pull away from campus, and it’s only when they hit the open road does Chan realise that his exams are all over now, and he doesn’t need to worry about studying or being super stressed for the next few weeks. Hopefully Dave won’t take advantage of his good mood.

* * *

Eventually Changbin’s turnoff comes up, and with a wave, the two split off from one another and keep going their separate ways. They would stop and say goodbye properly but the road is a no stopping zone and the new camera has just been installed, so Chan doesn’t want to chance his luck with getting a fine for loitering. His tattoos and bike never really help him too much when it comes to not being seen as suspicious by the law unfortunately. His ethnicity too, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

He lazily loops the bend in the road before starting to speed up again, and after that is when it happens.

Before his tired mind even has a chance to comprehend what’s happening, he passes in front of a junction and suddenly the beginning of a car is right in front of him. He’s too sluggish to push on the brake fast enough, not that it would have helped too much, he’s going too fast, not even able to hear the car over the music in his ears. It’s also a blind corner, which is almost laughably ironic, because otherwise Chan would have seen the car speeding, would have been able to slow down in time.

It all happens so quickly. He slams on the brake on instinct but it’s way too late. There’s a horrible crashing sound, the screech of metal on metal as the front of his bike collides with the car, then a jarring jolt followed by weightlessness as he’s thrown from the seat. Chan’s distantly aware of the fact he was going so fast he’s managed to catapult himself over the front of the car, before he remembers to stretch out his arms to catch himself at the last second.

His palms hit the ground and try as he might his arms crumple under the force, and he bites his tongue as his head collides with the ground with an impossibly loud crunch, and then he’s gone. He’s distantly aware of the fact he’s definitely rolling across the road before he blacks out completely.

When he comes too again he’s confused, thoughts swimming around in his head but unable to fully grasp any of them. The ground underneath him is tough and hard and uncomfortable, bits of gravel digging into the skin where his leather jacket has rolled up. He can’t breathe. His fingers feel warm and wet on his left hand so he uses his right to try and take his helmet off so that he can get some _air_ oh my god _please I can’t breathe_.

He scrambles with the clasp but eventually is able to pull the helmet up and over his head, sucking in a lungful of cooler air as soon as it’s off. Distantly he can hear his first aid trainer and his driving instructor yelling at him that you never _ever_ take off the helmet after a crash, but he doesn’t care, it’s so much nicer with it off.

“Oh jeez Judy, he's just a kid."

Chan suddenly becomes aware that there’s a middle-aged couple standing over him, embarrassed he tries to mumble something about not being a kid, but the man is already speaking over him, looking pretty distraught.

“I’m so so sorry, I wasn’t looking and it’s late, I didn’t hear the bike, I-”

Chan drowns him out and focuses on trying to wave the man’s concerns off, but his head is super woozy and instead he just ends up dropping the helmet from his chest to the ground.

The woman gasps and it takes Chan a shameful amount of time to realise it’s because of the huge dent in the side of the helmet, it probably saved his life; it also explains why his head hurts so much.

“Where’s my phone?” He manages to slur out, he needs to call Woojin. His earbuds have fallen out so he can’t trace the wire, and when he tries to move his left arm an uncomfortable and mildly painful sensation stops him.

“Just leave it son, the ambulance shouldn’t be much longer, the hospital isn’t that far” the man says, voice strained.

Despite how bruised his body feels, Chan doesn’t especially want to go to the hospital and tries to protest. But he must black out again because the next thing he knows there’s the ringing of sirens in his ears and the flash of red and blue as the ambulance is spotted down the street. A group of four teens step out into the road and try to flag it down, and their sudden appearance makes Chan realise that it’s not just him and the couple on the road, but also said four teens next to a car, and a man standing next to a bicycle. Suddenly incredibly embarrassed, he makes to try and drag himself off, cover his face, do _anything_ to make everyone stop looking at him, but before he can there’s what he can only assume is an EMT in his face, looking over him, next to her stands a police officer. The words ‘okay’ and ‘hospital’ and ‘helmet’ make it to his ears, but the rest is droned out by the steady scream of the siren, and he’s barely aware of it as he’s loaded onto the ambulance, the doors slamming shut behind him.

Once inside the ambulance it’s suddenly much calmer, and the EMT moves around the space and checks him over.

“Can you hear me, sir?”

Sir. Feels weird to be called sir when this EMT is clearly in his thirties or so.

“Sir?”

“What?” Chan drawls, for some reason words and speaking seem like much tougher concepts than normal.

“Do you know what day it is, sir?”

It takes Chan a while to conjure up the memory of what date he’d written down on the front of his test, but thankfully the EMT doesn’t rush him.

“June twelfth” he eventually says, and the EMT nods, looking relieved, “two thousand and nineteen” he tacks on just for good measure.

“Okay that’s great, can you tell me your name?”

“Chan.”

“Chan what?”

“Wait” Chan says, squinting against the bright light, “Christopher Bang, it’s Christopher.”

“Okay Chris, my name is Andrew, and we’re going to get you to the hospital to be looked at okay? I think you have a broken arm and maybe a head injury, but we won’t know until we can get you checked okay? So try and stay still and calm for me.”

Broken arm? Broken… broken arm?

“Does that mean I can’t ride my bike?”

His bike! He left it behind!

Going against what the EMT literally just told him, Chan feels himself start to panic, his breaths coming quicker, and he attempts to sit up before Andrew carefully catches his chest and lowers him back down onto the gurney.

“My bike! My bike, _fuck_ I left it behind I left it-”

“Chris, Chris! I’m going to need you to calm down okay, I’m” he pauses, looking unsure before something in his eyes steels and he continues, “I’m a bit of a diesel-head myself and… I understand what you must be feeling right now.

Chan, curious about where this is going, stops struggling against Andrew, who after a moment, lets him go and leans back. He shuffles for a moment then runs a hand through his hair before he continues speaking. 

“Look, this isn’t exactly procedure but I think I make an exception. My friend owns a garage, I can call the company and have it taken there so you can pick it up later, is that alright?”

A little dumbfounded, all Chan can do is nod.

“I’ll put his number in your phone and save it under ‘Andrew garage’ alright? Then you can call him when you’re discharged, can I have your phone password?”

“0897” Chan says before he realises fully what Andrew said. “My phone’s okay? It survived?”

Andrew smiles and shows him his phone, which despite a couple cracks in the screen that weren’t there before, looks like it’s working just fine. “It got a little banged up but the leather of your jacket saved it.”

Chan remembers what he was meant to ask before, cursing his brain for how much it’s struggling to keep on track when it comes to his thoughts.

“Did you see how badly my bike was broken?”

Andrew gives him a sympathetic look and shakes his head, “no I didn’t, but you’ll be able to call my friend later, for now just try and rest okay?”

Rest is the furthest thing from Chan’s mind, he’s halfway through a full-blown panic already.

“B-but my parents oh god, they’re my… my emergency contact and I, they’re going to be so upset I was so reckless fuck fuck I broke my dad’s bike _I broke it_ oh god I-”

“Chris please, you’re going to have to calm down, everything will be fine” Andrew says loudly, breaking Chan out of his spiral. “Look just talk to me okay, I can’t let you fall asleep in case you have a concussion, so we’re just going to talk, and I’m going to ask you some questions alright? Just try and answer them as best you can.”

“Okay.”

Chan finds himself able to answer most of Andrew’s questions, they’re all pretty simple, but it’s a little hard to concentrate fully on them with how fuzzy his head feels. Eventually though they get to the hospital and Chan is honestly thankful, he's not sure how many more questions he could have taken.

"Hey Chris, we're here. Now we would normally wait but since we're unsure if you have a concussion, we're taking you straight in so we can set your arm as well. So there’s going to be a lot of moving around but I need you to stay nice and calm for me alright?”

Chan nods and immediately hates how dizzy he feels from the motion.

* * *

Chan honestly doesn't remember everything that happens after that in great detail. However, he does remember that he was examined with an x-ray and told he has in fact, broken his left arm, but with how quickly they were able to act it should heal with no complications. However, in less fun news he was told that he most definitely has a concussion, grade 2 or something like that, and because of that they'll have to put him under localised anaesthesia instead of general to set his arm. Oh and he also has a lacerated wrist, incredibly scratched legs since he wasn’t wearing riding pants, and he apparently _almost_ fractured his shoulder, but thankfully it’s just pretty bruised. They said he was lucky, that he came away relatively unscathed considering his lack of protection.

So they set his arm and put it in a cast, and now here he is, sitting in a hospital bed while his doctor checks his vitals and updates him on the situation. It’s been a wild ride, and one that Chan isn’t sure he’s keen to repeat any time soon, if ever.

"You've been given some painkillers to help with your concussion" his doctor says, Chan never caught his name and feels bad asking for it, "and that's all we can do, it should clear up, my advice would be just to go to sleep."

"Sleep?" Chan finds himself asking, "isn't that something you're not supposed to do when you have a concussion?"

It feels a little weird to be questioning a literal doctor, but thankfully he seems fine with the question and just smiles patiently.

"You should avoid sleeping immediately after head trauma, but when it comes to things like this sleep helps the brain recover. You're able to hold a conversation so you don't seem to be in any danger. We'll keep you here for forty-eight hours though, just to monitor you, but after that if we're happy with your progress you can be discharged.”

The doctor walks over to the door and flips off the light. Chan has his own room luckily for him, though he might be moved soon if they need it for someone else. Still, he appreciates the lack of other people.

“For now though, just sleep, and we’ll check on you in the morning.”

“Okay, thank you” Chan says with a smile, one that the doctor returns before exiting the room and slowly closing the door behind him, leaving Chan alone.

Honestly? The thought of sleeping seems so impossible to Chan, after everything that's happened, he's convinced that there's absolutely _no way_ that he'll be able to sleep. Which makes it all the more surprising when after he's settled down, gotten comfortable, and closed his eyes, he's out like a goddamn light.

* * *

Chan’s aware that he dreams, but as soon as he wakes up enough to realise he was, in fact, dreaming, most of the pictures that were just flashing through his mind seconds previously start to fade. All he can remember is blue, blue and red and someone’s voice calling to him, or maybe speaking to him for some reason? God he really can’t remember anything.

The squeak of leather, followed by the screech of metal on sheet vinyl draws Chan even further from his thoughts, and the memory of the voice completely fades from his mind. There’s a sniff, and then another squeak, and it takes Chan a couple of seconds to remember where he is, but when he does, he figures it’s probably the nurse or one of the doctors moving stuff around, and elects to ignore it in favour of a couple more minutes of sleep.

“Do you want some water, honey?” A voice says, one that Chan recognises immediately.

He intends to launch into a sitting position, but apparently his body is even more tired than he originally thought, as he only manages to shift a bit and open his eyes, though he has to instantly close them again due to the bright light that filters in.

“Chris! Oh baby” his mother breathes, and there’s the sudden weight of a hand on his head, brushing through his curls.

“I told you he would be alright” his father chimes in, and Chan’s finally able to open his eyes and meet their gazes.

“Hi mum, dad” he says lowly, coughing once as he sits up against his pillow so he can accept the plastic cup of water that his dad immediately offers him.

There’s sunlight streaming in through the blinds, illuminating his parent’s faces; his mum is sitting in a chair next to his bedside, and to Chan’s horror, it looks like she has been crying. His dad on the other hand, while not looking like he’s been crying, looks stressed, though they’re both obviously very happy to see him awake.

“How are you, son?” His dad asks, coming closer to put a hand on his shoulder. Chan knows that they would both hug him given half the chance, but they’re wary of his arm. He wants to say ‘fuck it’ and demand a hug anyway, but he knows they wouldn’t if they’re worried about his cast.

“I’m okay” Chan answers honestly, “a little stiff. Tired as well.”

He is tired, despite waking up he just wants to go back to sleep.

“We can… we can come back later?” His mum offers, and he immediately shoves the urge down and shakes his head.

“No, it’s okay, I’m glad you’re here.”

His parents smile at that, and cautious not to disturb his arm, his mum puts an arm around his shoulders and gives him a quick hug, looking ready to cry again.

“What happened?” His dad asks, pulling up another chair and sitting on it.

“With what?”

His dad chuckles and rolls his eyes, “with the crash, dummy, the hospital didn’t give us many details.”

“Oh” Chan says, feeling stupid. “Uh, well I was going back to my flat from the music exam, Chang- Jack and I split up at the turnoff with the new lights and, uh, there was a car coming out of the junction, I couldn’t break in time and went over the hood.”

“You didn’t hear them?” His mum asks, clearly confused, and Chan makes a small gesture towards the side of his head.

“Was wearing earphones. It was also a blind turn.”

“Wait” his dad speaks up, sounding oddly stern, “you had right-of-way?”

Chan thinks back to the road, to the junction.

“Yeah. They should have slowed down or indicated but they just came right out, weren’t using their headlights either, I would’ve seen them.”

His dad stands up, looking pissed, “unbelievable” he spits, fisting a hand into his hair, “un-fucking-believable. They could have killed you.”

Chan feels a protest build in his throat, but it’s quickly squashed at the statement, because he’s right, Chan could have died right then had he been going any faster. It didn’t help that he was tired and listening to music, but at the end of the day he probably would have made it home with no issues if the couple in the car hadn’t decided to not stop at the junction. It’s a souring feeling.

“Honey” his mum reprimands her husband sharply, though there’s an undertone in his voice that broadcasts to Chan that she’s just as angry as his dad.

“What happened” he asks his parents, who turn to him for clarification, “like what happened on your end? How did you find out?”

His dad blows out a breath and comes back to sit on the seat, resting his elbows on his knees.

“Well, your mom and I were at home when my phone started ringing, I was doing the dishes so I couldn’t answer it, I was just gonna let it go to voicemail when your mom walked in and answered it for me. I thought it was a scammer, or a work friend or something.”

“I answered the phone” his mum continues, “and there was a woman on the other end who asked who we were and then if we could come to the hospital because we were listed as your emergency contact. When I” she pauses, taking a deep breath, his dad puts a hand on her shoulder, “when I asked what was happening they told me that you had been involved in a car crash and that you were being transported to the hospital with unknown injuries, I started to panic, but thankfully your dad took the phone and organised everything with them.”

“We booked a train immediately” his dad says, “packed a suitcase and ordered a stay at a hotel near here for a few days. By the time we arrived, visiting hours were over, but they told us you were in stable condition and everything was okay, so we came back this morning to see you.”

“Oh and Jack called!” His mum interjects, causing Chan to frown a little.

“He called you? Why?”

“Well apparently after the two of you drove home together, he got to his own house and called you to make sure you were alright. Then he called Matthew to make sure you had gotten home, and when Matthew said he hadn’t seen you he called us, and we told him what happened.”

Damn. Chan makes a mental reminder to buy both Changbin and Woojin some new wax or something as an apology for making them worry so much over him.

He’s drawn out of his thoughts by the slightest pressure on his arm, and when he looks down, his mum is running her fingers over the cast, looking sad.

“It’s fine, mum” he says gently, grabbing her attention, “doesn’t even hurt.” He smiles at her, “least it wasn’t my tattooed arm, and it’s my left, so I can still write and stuff.”

She doesn’t look entirely cheered up, but she does send him a small smile in return and shakes her head a little, probably wondering how she raised such an idiot child.

Speaking of children.

“How’s my bike?” He asks slowly, “do you know?”

Chan’s heart immediately drops like a stone into his stomach at the look his parents exchange. He can feel his throat tighten, especially when his dad meets his eyes.

“We met a nurse who told us about the bike, gave us a number to call. Apparently because the bike is considered an old model, the parts have been decommissioned.” He swallows and Chan wishes he could do the same, but it feels like he’s being strangled. “It’s been written-off, the guy said it’ll never be road worthy again.”

Chan sits in silence for a few moments, letting the information was over him. “Well” he laughs as he points to his arm cast, though it comes out like more of a choked sob, “not like I would be able to ride it anyway.”

Then he’s crying, not even trying to hold back the tears as everything finally catches up with him, his parents moving from their spots to embrace him. They don’t move for at least a few minutes, but once Chan is confident that he can talk again, he finds himself apologising repeatedly into his dad’s shirt.

“What are you apologising for, son?” His dad asks, sounding a little confused.

“The bike” Chan manages to get out through his heaving, “I was so fucking stupid and you, and you gave me th-that bike and I _ruined_ it and now it’ll never be, be on the-”

“Now, Chris” his dad says suddenly, commanding as he takes Chan’s shoulders in his hands and levels him with a stern look that shuts Chan up instantly. “You are stupid, but only because you think for even a second that I would much rather have some bike than my own son.”

Unable to argue with the sheer amount of power in his dad’s voice, Chan just nods and lets his dad pull him back into the hug, where he manages to finally calm down fully.

“I’m tired” he mutters against his mother’s shoulder, the feeling from before having returned tenfold, and she gently extracts herself from him.

“Go to sleep then, honey, your body needs the rest.”

“But you-”

“Will be fine” his mum interrupts him as she does her best to rearrange his position until he’s lying down again, “now go to sleep.”

Chan falls asleep holding his mother’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long everyone, I had to move back to my parent's because my new house didn't have wifi when we moved in (like we were Promised >:c) so I couldn't upload it till now. 
> 
> Please leave a review if you can :D I'd love to know what you're thinking.


	12. And I'll Spit You Out

Chan wakes up and it’s night. Or at least he’s pretty sure it’s night, judging by how dark his room has suddenly become. For a split second he’s confused about where he is, before the memories of what happened to him come flooding back, he remains groggy though, like he’s moving through soup, his eyes constantly trying to close again. He floats around in this hazy state for a little while, content to just lie there and let himself and his thoughts drift, but the door to his room suddenly opens. Tilting his head up, he catches sight of a woman holding a roll of bandages who meets his gaze evenly.

“You’re awake” she states, somewhat unnecessarily, as she walks further into the room and places the bandages down on a nearby table. “How are you?”

Thrown off for a second by the question, Chan takes note of how he feels, if there’s any lingering pain or anything. His knees feel a little banged up, as do his arms, but it’s mostly just discomfort thanks to the pain medication.

“I’m fine” he settles on eventually, punctuated by a yawn.

That draws a smile out of the nurse, “still tired?”

Chan nods.

“Well, wanting to sleep a lot after an accident like that is normal, I’ll go get you some food and water and then you can go straight back to sleep if you want.”

“I’m not hungry” Chan says honestly, he’s just tired.

“Well, regardless” the nurse says as she turns around and opens the door, “you need to eat something, you’ve been out for a while.” And with that, she leaves, shutting the door softly behind her.

When she comes back, she’s holding a paper plate with what looks like a small sandwich on it, and a glass of water. She sets them down by his bedside and strongly advises he eat them, before checking over his vitals, the equipment, and his cast, before leaving once more.

Resisting the urge to sigh, Chan picks up the plate with his good hand. It’s a cheese sandwich, Chan doesn’t actually like this particular type of cheese, but he eats a little of it regardless, finishing about half of the sandwich and downing all the water before laying down and slipping right back into unconsciousness.

* * *

When he wakes up again, he thankfully feels much more awake. A glance to his right at the clock reveals that it’s eight in the morning, and the sandwich and glass from his bedside table has gone, so he assumes someone came by afterwards and picked it up.

He swings his legs off of the bed and goes to the bathroom before coming back and laying down once more. It’s then that it strikes him, he has nothing to do. So he sits, thinks about the conversation he had with his parents, thinks about what his friends are all doing right now, thinks about what’s happened to his bike and where it is. By the time a nurse enters his room he had seriously been contemplating just pressing the call button by his bed just for something to do.

It’s not the same woman from last night, it’s a different one, short, stout and middle aged, with, surprisingly, dark green hair pulled into a bun on top of her head.

“Are you doing okay?” She asks, and her voice is maternal and pleasant.

“Yeah I’m okay, just bored, thank you” he answers, “um, do you know where my phone is? And if you do, can I have it?”

“I’m sorry honey, your parents have your phone. They’ll be coming in later if you want to ask them for it.” And at the way his face must obviously fall, she smiles softly at him, “I can bring you a book though if you want?”

Well a book is much better than just sitting here, he nods. “Yes that would be great, thank you.”

She smiles again and leaves the room before coming back with a copy of " _To Kill A Mockingbird_ ", Chan remembers this book from high school literature, but as he reads through it again, he finds himself enjoying it a lot more than he remembers in school. The nurse also drops off some breakfast, a plate of toast and some scrambled eggs, which he annoyingly has to eat separate from reading the book considering he now only has one good arm. God that going to take a bit to get used to. Before she leaves, the nurse also tells him that he can leave tomorrow morning if he's cleared by the doctor.

He gets up to the part where Scout is dressed like a ham, a fantastic image to be sure, when the doctor arrives with two police officers trailing behind him. Chan stiffens a little, never really trusting cops too much, but he trusts that they, hopefully, won’t do anything stupid while he’s literally in the hospital.

“Hey son” the male one says, “we heard you got involved in a car accident, do you mind telling us what happened from your perspective?”

“Or at least what you remember” the female one adds, “we heard about your injuries.”

So Chan tells them what he remembers, their pens scratch over their notebooks as he does so. He doesn’t know exactly why both of them take notes and not just one, but it might be in case one of them misses something, who knows? Chan’s incredibly thankful for his Australian accent, he knows that this would never have gone as smoothly if he had a thick, Asian one.

“Alright” the male cop says, “that lines up with what we saw and what the witnesses said.”

“You saw?” Chan questions before he’s aware he’s speaking, and the woman gives him an understanding look.

“Yes, there were new cameras installed all down that road fairly recently, thankfully for you, since without them we wouldn’t have been able to see what happened ourselves.”

Chan remembers thinking about the cameras, right before he and Changbin split off from one another. God, he’s lucky he crashed now and not a month ago, without that footage this whole thing would have been a bit more complicated.

“Well” the male cop says, “with such clear evidence and all the statements lining up, it’s obvious what happened and that you’re the victim here. The man who hit you is called Benji Thompson, he and his wife were in the car and didn’t have their lights on despite low light conditions, and didn’t stop at the junction. Because we know what happened they are being charged, but he wants to come speak with you, it’s your call though.”

Chan blinks, surprised, he wasn’t expecting the guy who hit him to visit him in the hospital.

“I” he says slowly, “I don’t know if I want to see him.”

Usually he would be fine, but this is a weird situation and honestly he’s kind of uncomfortable and just wants the interaction to be over as soon as possible.

“We’ll come back later” the female cop says, standing up, “try and make a decision before then.”

“I will” Chan agrees, and both the cops leave, along with the doctor, who Chan only now realises had been standing off in the corner of the room, watching the interaction. Slowly, Chan picks up his book and continues reading.

Another hour passes, and Chan’s attention is pulled from his book when he hears a commotion coming from outside his door. For a long moment he’s confused about what could possibly be happening, but then he catches a couple of familiar voices and his face splits into a smile even before all of his friends come bursting through the door. For a moment, Chan is confused upon seeing Jeongin considering it’s Friday and also school hours, before remembering that he's on study break for his exams.

“CHAN!” Changbin yells, loud enough to cause Woojin and Seungmin to flinch, and flings himself at the hospital bed, tears already burning in his eyes as he takes in the cast on his friend’s arm.

It’s a complete mess as everyone gathers round his bedside, talking a mile a minute about how worried they were and asking him what the hell even happened. Once they’re quiet enough, Chan tells them, paraphrasing way more than when he had been speaking to the police officers, and watches how his friend’s expressions change when he tells them about the crash. Minho and Hyunjin look pissed, probably dying to rant about how stupid the driver was, Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin look more concerned, Woojin and Jisung look like they’re simmering in anger, though their concern is winning out, and Changbin looks fucking _distraught_.

“-then I got told I had a second grade concussion, which explained why I was kind of out of it in the ambulance and when I woke up right after being hit. As well as a broken arm, uhh, scraped wrist and legs since I was wearing jeans and not leathers, and I almost fractured my left shoulder, so it’s pretty banged up. They said I was really lucky though since everything will heal fine.”

“Jesus christ man” Hyunjin breathes slowly, “that car fucked you up.”

“Sure did” Chan agrees easily.

“God I’m so fucking sorry Chan” Changbin says suddenly, taking them all off guard. “I _knew_ you were too tired to ride home and I should have gone with you, or, or checked up on you sooner or _something¸_ I w-”

“Hey” Chan interrupts, loudly but gently. “Changbin, it wasn’t your fault. I should have known better, and they should have checked before leaving the junction. None of this is your fault and I don’t blame you, so don’t blame yourself, okay?”

Changbin, mindful of the cast, hugs Chan, who embraces him back as best he can with only his right arm. When Changbin pulls back, Jisung is there, looking so relieved to see him, and bends down so that they can kiss, right before Chan scoots along and invites him on the so they can lay next to one another.

“Now that that sappy shit is all out of the way” Minho says loudly, “can we _please_ talk about the fucking idiot-ass couple, like who doesn’t stop at a fucking junction?!”

They talk about it for a while, all of them settling and getting comfortable as time wears on. Chan also tells them about what the cops told him, and that the driver apparently wants to meet him for something. What? No idea. When? Also no idea. The squad give their respective advices, all of which Chan takes gratefully, except Hyunjin’s insistence that he cuss the guy out, he doesn’t think that that would go over very well at all.

Throughout the whole interaction, Chan notices that Seungmin and Hyunjin seem uncomfortable with one another, but in a different way than they have been for a while now. Instead of avoiding eye contact like before, they now seem to be doing the opposite, trying to catch the other’s eye as much as they can, and looking at one another a lot. Chan’s not fantastic at reading people, but he swears it seems like they want to talk, but can't in front of everyone else. Odd.

Another hour or so passes and Chan realises that it’s a little after twelve in the afternoon, something that the other’s in the room also pick up on. They decide they’re all going to go to the sandwich bar across the road from the hospital.

“We can get you one” Jeongin offers Chan, “it would be nice to have something that isn’t hospital food!”

“That sounds nice” Chan agrees, and nudges Jisung with his knee, “I trust you’ll get me something good then?”

“Of course” Jisung says brightly and with a cocky grin, “I like to think I know you well enough to pick out a sandwich you’ll like.”

“God you two are so fucking domestic” Changbin groans, teasing, “get a room.”

“You all invaded _my_ room!” Chan counters loudly, as Jisung howls with laughter next to him before rolling onto his side and pulling Chan into a kiss, ignoring everyone’s jeers.

The jeers abruptly stop, some with choked wheezes and gasps when the group realise that Chan’s parents have just walked into the room.

At the lack of noise, Chan pulls away and looks towards the door, expecting to see a doctor or maybe even the police from earlier, which is why all of the blood in his body freezes when he registers who exactly it is at the door. Chan had mentioned to his parents at an earlier point in time that he was dating casually, but he never actually told them who it was. Both because he’s never openly had a boyfriend around them, and also because in the beginning this was supposed to be a bet, so he didn’t think his parents needed to know anything about it, for obvious reasons. Now they’ve just walked in on them kissing a boy, and not only a boy, a boy in a light pink crop top, hot pink bomber jacket, dark blue high-wasted booty shorts, thigh high baby pink socks, and grey-pink timberlands.

For a brief moment, Chan honestly wishes that the car crash had just killed him on impact.

“Uh” he says, mouth so dry his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth, “mum, dad, this is my boyfriend.”

The silence is stifling, everyone sits quiet, tense, uncomfortable.

“Talk about being caught in the act” his dad jokes, smiling, seemingly not even sensing how tense the atmosphere has become, and everyone relaxes a little as his mother laughs along.

“Uh, we’re gonna go to lunch” Woojin says, shepherding everyone out. Chan can sense how much Jisung wants to go with him, but instead of doing that, his boyfriend just stands up next to the bed and waits for everyone else to leave. Until it’s just them both, and Chan’s parents in the room.

Jisung walks forward, meeting Chan’s parents half way and sticks his hand out. Chan can tell that Jisung is _extremely_ uncomfortable only because he knows Jisung so well. To anyone else, Jisung’s confident façade looks pretty much as strong as ever. He shoots Chan’s parents a charming smile as Chan’s dad grabs his hand and shakes it.

“Nice to meet you both properly” Jisung says brightly, and it’s only the faintest waiver at the end of the statement that betrays to Chan how scared his boyfriend actually is. “My name is Ji- Peter Han, I’m a first year.” He drops his hand back down to his side.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Peter, I love your glasses” his mother says, and Jisung starts a little, seemingly only just then remembering the pink-tinted fashion glasses hanging out of the top front pocket of his jacket.

“Thank you, I got them from Pennies, they’re pretty cheap if you want to get a pair.”

“So what course do you do, Peter?” His father asks, and it would sound like an interrogation if his dad didn’t ask every single one of Chan’s friends that, it was his icebreaker for talking to young people.

“Art and music combined degree” Jisung responds.

“Oh! That’s the same as Changbin” his mother says, and Jisung quickly explains the difference between a dual degree and a combined degree.

His parents sit down in the two chairs next to Chan’s bed and gesture to the one on Chan’s other side, which Jisung takes just a bit slower than he normally would. Concerned, Chan turns his right hand over, a silent offer, one that Jisung takes, threading his own fingers through Chan’s. It’s only when their fingers are entwined does Chan feel the ever so slight tremble in Jisung’s own.

“So how did you two meet? Chris never told us” his mother says, and Chan feels the fingers stiffen in his hand so he rushes in.

“I offered to drive him back to his flat one night.”

It’s not technically a lie, which is good because Chan’s never been good at lying to his parents. Beside him, Jisung nods.

“And you’ve been together for?” His dad asks, looking between them and the comfort they seem to have around one another.

“Dating or boyfriends?” Jisung asks for clarification, and his dad shrugs.

“Both I guess.”

“Uhhh” Jisung says, doing the math in his head. “Five months for dating, three or four for boyfriends.”

His mother gasps and Chan doesn’t miss how Jisung stiffens imperceptibly.

“I can’t believe you’ve been together for almost half a year and we haven’t met!” She says, “I’m so sorry that Christopher didn’t introduce us sooner, sweetie.”

Taken aback by the statement, Jisung just laughs quietly. “It’s fine” he reassures, “I’m not exactly the kind of person people take home to their parents if you get what I mean” he says with a gesture at his outfit.

Upset at the admission, Chan squeezes Jisung’s hand, not missing how both his parent’s look at the movement.

“That’s not true” he says strongly, looking into Jisung’s eyes, who smiles at him and squeezes his hand back.

“I’m really sorry” Jisung suddenly says, turning back to Chan’s parents and inclining his head. “We can probably have a proper meeting later, I’ll let you see your son now.”

He stands up at the same time as Chan’s mother, who opens her arms; shocked, Jisung hesitantly steps into the embrace, letting her wrap her arms around him in a hug.

“We’ll have to have you over for dinner sometime. It was lovely meeting you though.”

Jisung steps back and smiles at her, “that sounds great. It was really nice meeting you both too.”

He turns to Chan and gives him a smile, less polite and a little more genuine than the one he gave his mother, “I’m gonna catch up with the others, text me when it’s okay for us to come back in.”

“Will do” Chan says, returning the smile, and Jisung nods to his parents before turning around and walking out, closing the door behind him as Chan’s mother sits back down.

“He seems like a nice lad” his dad says approvingly, and tension Chan didn’t even know he was carrying melts away.

“I agree” his mother says, “I wish we had more time to get to know him.”

Chan could ask a hundred questions right now. _Are you mad? Are you uncomfortable? Did you know I was bi? Do you mind? Are you upset I hid it from you? Are you upset that I hid_ him _from you?_

What comes out of his mouth instead is “do you have my phone?”

His mother nods and reaches into her bag, pulling out his phone and giving it to him.

“We had the screen replaced since it was pretty scratched up and cracked.”

That explains how unaffected his phone looks then, he opens it up with his password and winces at the amount of missed calls and texts before turning it off and placing it on his bedside table.

“So what happened while we were gone?” His dad asks, and Chan tells them pretty much everything, including what the police officers said and some of the advice his friends gave him about it.

“So you didn’t get the option to press charges?”

“Not really” Chan confirms for his dad, “because there was so many witnesses and it was also caught on camera he was charged regardless of what I say.”

“Good” his dad says, and his mum doesn’t even reprimand him, silently showing her agreement.

Chan takes a breath. “So do you guys think I should meet with the guy? To see what he wants?”

His parents are quiet for a moment, exchanging glances.

“Well” his dad says slowly, “I honestly think he just wants to apologise, and if it’s in the hospital he wouldn’t try anything stupid. Especially if the police are right there. So I would, but it’s your choice at the end of the day. If you aren’t comfortable meeting him then you don’t have to.”

“Right” Chan says, “thank you, I’ll think about it.”

They talk for a while longer, mostly about trivial things, such as his father’s work, or the new recipe his mother decided to try, which he promises to send him later so he and Woojin can try and make it for themselves.

There’s a knock on the door and the doctor sticks his head in, so with some apologies, his parents leave, needing to get back anyway because the parking meter is close to running out of time. They both hug him goodbye and he promises to call them later when he gets home to update them on how he’s doing.

Once they’re gone, the doctor comes back in and checks him over.

“Right” he says, pushing his brown hair out of his face. “I think you should be okay to leave soon, your concussion doesn’t seem to have caused any problems, and your arm will be fine as long as you don’t move it too much and keep it in the cast for nine to twelve weeks. You’ll get a slip at reception for another appointment in ten weeks, you can come in and we’ll check your cast and see if it’s ready to come off, or if it needs to stay on for a little longer, does that sound alright?”

“Sounds great, thanks” Chan says, happy that everything seems to be okay. “Do you know when I’ll be able to leave the hospital?”

“Well” the doctor responds, checking over the notes on his clipboard. “We need to monitor people who come in with concussions for a certain amount of time. Fourty-eight hours is the legal required amount for second grade. You’ve been here for just under that, so you’ll have to be in for a little longer, but that’s probably good because you need to rest that shoulder, and because you removed your helmet after the crash.”

Chan winces. It _was_ a stupid decision.

“So we can either let you go tonight, or keep you in one more night just to be safe, and then you can leave tomorrow morning or afternoon depending on when you can be picked up. Do you have anyone who’ll be able to pick you up?”

“Uh, my roommate” Chan answers, and the doctor nods.

“It’s your decision, if you want out tonight then you can leave at ten pm, or you can wait until tomorrow morning if that’s more convenient.”

“Do you mind if I ask my roommate?”

“Not at all.”

Chan quickly texts Woojin, not wanting to make the other wait around for hours just to pick him up later. Thankfully the reply comes in pretty quickly and Chan sighs in relief.

“He said he can do it tonight.”

The doctor nods again, “okay, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that you need to rest. No heavy lifting, no excessive movement, no alcohol till you’re off your medication. We can give you some physio handouts at reception when you pick up your prescription, but you have to follow the plan, no pushing yourself, you’ve put your body through a lot and you need time to heal.” The doctor’s voice is friendly, but Chan knows how serious the man is about this, and nods, hoping to convey that he understands.

“Well since exam season is over I should be able to take it super easy” Chan reassures, and the doctor seems pleased.

“Good. You were very lucky, son. I don’t want to see you here any more than you have to be.”

* * *

Not too soon after the doctor leaves, the police come back, asking if he’s made a decision.

“Yeah I have” he nods, “I’ll meet him.”

The police nod and tell him they’ll be back in a couple of hours with the man. Chan spends said two hours hanging out with Woojin, Jisung, Felix and Minho, as everyone else had to go home or otherwise had other plans. He eats his sandwich happily, telling them what’s transpired and what the doctor said.

A little later than two hours later, the police return, and his friends give him a quick goodbye before filing out the room. That leaves Chan, the male police officer, the female police officer, and a middle-aged man with mousy brown hair and small brown eyes. A part of Chan’s brain does in fact recognise him from the crash, though the memory is fuzzy and hard to hold onto for more than a few seconds at a time.

The police stand in the back of the room as the man shuffles forward, he doesn’t sit, just stands at the foot of the bed, wringing his hands nervously and shifting around.

“I’m so sorry, kid” he finally says, looking at Chan with a startling amount of conviction. “I know sorry doesn’t fix your broken arm, or your bike” Chan winces “but know that I do truly regret what happened. I’ll never touch the driver’s seat of a car ever again. I can’t. Not knowing what I did to you.”

Chan recalls vaguely what he heard the man saying that night to his wife, ‘ _I’m so so sorry, it’s late and I wasn’t looking properly, I didn’t hear your bike’._

“I accept your apology” Chan says, truthfully. He’s careful he doesn’t say ‘I forgive you’, because he’s honestly not sure if he does. He’s the forgiving type, but he can’t get out of his mind how reckless the man had been, how if it had been anyone other than Chan, they would have gotten hurt, might have even been killed. All because this man didn’t follow the law.

Thankfully this seems good enough for the man, _Benji_ , Chan’s brain helpfully supplies.

“Thank you, I don’t deserve your kindness” he says sadly, but he’s smiling. “Also, there’s something else.”

Chan pauses, confused.

“I want to pay your medical bills, since it’s my fault that you’re here.”

Shocked would be an understatement to describe how Chan feels at the confession. With two days in the hospital, the cast, the medication, the everything, Chan’s sure that it’s not going to be cheap. It’s a massive gesture, one that Chan doesn’t initially know how to respond properly to.

“I, you, uh, you don’t have to do that” he settles on eventually.

The man shakes his head a little, “I want to, please, it would help ease my conscious a tiny bit.”

Chan thinks about it. His insurance is probably not enough to cover all of it, and though he can live comfortably, it would be nice to not have to use his own savings, or heaven forbid his parent’s. And clearly the man really wants to do this.

“Okay” he says slowly, “if you’re sure.”

Benji smiles, relieved, and bows his head to Chan. “Thank you. I’ll leave the details at reception for you. Again, I’m so sorry that this happened, I hope you get better soon.”

“Thank you” Chan says automatically, sending the man what he hopes is a thankful and reassuring smile.

With that, the police bundle Benji out of the room, and Chan is once more left alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Eventually enough time passes and Chan is released from the hospital, he has one last check-over, grabs his new pain medication and plan, his physio sheets, and the receipt for his stay - ouch by the way, Chan feels new appreciation for Benji’s kind action – hugs his parents goodbye, and climbs into the car alongside Woojin. Apparently it’s Woojin’s cousin’s car, he swung by this afternoon and picked it up since he’s insured on it and also has a driving licence for cars as well as motorbikes.

The car ride home is quiet save for the radio, though as soon as they step through the door to their apartment, Woojin is immediately fussing over Chan, making sure he’s careful taking his jacket off and cooking him a small dinner before sending him off to bed. He also takes Chan’s medication, his plan and his physio sheets, vowing to Chan that he’s going to make sure he follows the doctor’s advice to the letter. Chan feels a little bit like a child, but he can’t say he isn’t a mixture of amused and touched at Woojin’s mother-henning.

Eventually, after what feels like it’s been forever, Chan is finally in some pyjamas, lying under the cover of his own bed and on his phone. The normalcy is nice, comforting.

 **Chris**  
So what you gonna do for your exam then?  
Just cause you said it was texture based before

 **Jisung <3**  
yeeee it is  
and just something like the concept art I showed you

 **Chris**  
Seems complex

 **Jisung <3  
**that’s what gets the good grades lmao

Chan is distracted from writing his reply to Jisung by another text notification popping up on his phone. He pauses, thinking it’s probably Evan or Michelle or one of the other biker gang members, so is shocked when he reads the name of the sender. Hesitantly, he opens it.

 **Dave**  
Hey man heard abt the accident, you ok?

For a long, long moment, Chan just looks at the message, reads it over and over again. It seems so out of the blue, so out of character. It leaves him truly speechless. Another bubble pops up and Chan forces himself to read that one too.

 **Dave**  
Arin told me what happened to ur bike, that sucks so much man

Is this sarcasm? Some kind of fucking joke? Chan honestly can’t be sure. Ever so slowly he types out a response, thumb hovering over the send button for ages before he finally presses it down.

 **Chris**  
Is this a joke? You’ve never been actually concerned for my well being before.

He doesn’t have to wait long for the response.

 **Dave**  
I know this must seem like a joke but I’m legit serious  
  
 **Chris**  
I’m fine.

Chan pauses, teeth worrying his lip for a moment before he sends another message, mentally crossing his fingers.

 **Chris**  
Can you please just drop the bet

Unlike the last message, this one takes much longer to come in.

 **Dave**  
No

Chan resists the urge to scream in frustration.

 **Chris**  
Why

 **Dave**  
im way too deep in this now  
I have to go, me and mateo are going out soon  
Hope your arm is ok

Chan is a mix of severely frustrated, but also confused. But he doesn’t get much time to ponder on this new development before a notification at the top of his screen captures his attention, and he opens it.

 **Jisung <3**  
did you fall asleep skdfjg

 **Chris**  
No I’m still here

 **Jisung <3**  
oh shit  
whered you go?

Chan exits his texts and switches over to Messenger so he can send the screenshots of the odd text conversation.

 **Jisung <3**  
wow what a fucking asshole

Despite the situation, Chan finds himself snorting at Jisung’s response. Trust his boyfriend to make him feel better with just one message.

 **Jisung <3**  
idk what the hell he thinks he’s playing at but just ignore him  
you don’t owe him anything  
not even your time thinking about what that mess means

 **Chris**  
Thanks babe, that makes me feel better actually

 **Jisung <3  
**course ♥   
you should probably send these to changbin

 **Chris**  
Should I put it in the group chat?

 **Jisung <3**  
ooo good idea. I’ll hop over there now then

Once again, Chan closes the text window and opens the group chat.

**-Korea’s Gucci Gang-**

**_Aussieaussieaussie sent 2 screenshots_ **

**Frinkles:** What the fuck?????

 **MinHOE:** I’m w Felix  
 **MinHOE:** What the FUCK

 **Bab:** oh god

 **Mama Bear:** That’s so weird  
 **Mama Bear:** He seems genuine?

 **Sharpay Evans:** ikr!!   
**Sharpay Evans:** its fucking strange as hell  
 **Sharpay Evans:** like dude why do you care NOW?

 **Changbean:** Not enough to delete the video though

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** I’m sorry Bin, I tried

 **Changbean:** Dude stop. I would never blame you for this

 **Frinkles:** I honestly don’t know how to respond

 **MinHOE:** chan youre WAY nicer to him than I would have been  
 **MinHOE:** I would have torn that bitch a new one

 **Bab:** He would deserve it

 **Frinkles:** I keep expecting Hyunjin to jump in at any moment and scold you

 **Bab:** He’s out rn  
 **Bab:** with Seungmin I think

 **Mama Bear:** It’s good that you kept so composed Chan  
 **Mama Bear:** Don’t wanna rock the boat too much

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** That’s what I was thinking

 **Sharpay Evans:** maybe he’ll extend the deadline??

 **Changbean:** Maybe…

 **Bab:** Hopefully!

 **MinHOE:** would he really tho?

 **Frinkles:** I mean  
 **Frinkles:** Chan did break a whole ass arm  
 **Frinkles:** So I would hope so

 **Mama Bear:** Maybe we should all meet up and discuss this in person?  
 **Mama Bear:** I know you still have exams but this is important

 **Sharpay Evans:** I can meet up

 **Bab:** Same

 **Frinkles:** Me too  
 **Frinkes:** I don’t have any exams so

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** It’s a good idea

 **Changbean:** Yeah I have no exams so I can meet up whenever  
 **Changbean:** Since my parents can’t make me study anymore

 **MinHOE:** lucky fuckers  
 **MinHOE:** I have exams and essays and shit but ill meet up  
 **MinHOE:** cause this is important

 **Frinkles:** Real quick  
 **Frinkles:** How can we be sure there even is a deadline?  
 **Frinkles:** I mean  
 **Frinkles:** Dave is an ass but he hasn’t actually DONE anything so far?  
 **Frinkles:** It’s weird. Maybe hes bluffing

 **Bab:** Felix makes a good point

 **Mama Bear:** I don’t think its something we should risk

 **Sharpay Evans:** I agree w Woojin

 **MinHOE:** felix youre right to point it out but im also with Woojin

 **Mama Bear:** I know it’s a bit soon but what about tomorrow?  
 **Mama Bear:** Or Sunday?

 **Frinkles:** Everything will be closed Sunday?

 **MinHOE:** Not for lunch stuff  
 **MinHOE:** I’m good for tomorrow tbh

 **Frinkles:** Same

 **Sharpay Evans:** yea me too

 **Changbean:** Same here  
 **Changbean:** Plus it’ll be nice to see Chan not in hospital

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** I hear that

 **Bab:** Im ok for tomorrow  
 **Bab:** I’ll let Hyunjin know

 **Sharpay Evans:** Me and Felix will tell Seungmin

And so the plan is made. Suddenly overcome with a wave of exhaustion, Chan quickly says his goodbyes in the chat, smiling at everyone’s enthusiastic responses of “gnight” and “sleep well” and “love you” in Jisung and Minho’s case.

Laying carefully in order to make sure he hopefully won’t lie on his bad arm, Chan puts his phone on charge, turns off the lamp, and goes to sleep.


	13. Don't Care If You Think I'm Dumb

When Chan wakes up, all he can think about is how itchy his arm is. After scrambling and struggling for what feels like an hour, but is closer in reality to a little under six minutes, he finally manages to find a ruler and shove it down the cast to unsatisfyingly scratch the itch. 

Clearly all his moving around is enough to alert his roommate, because there’s a knock at his door, and when he yells to ‘come in’, Woojin opens it.

“You okay?” He asks, clearly amused as he takes in the sight of Chan, sitting on the ground, surrounded by the contents of his stationary drawer.

Chan sighs and pulls the ruler out of his cast, causing Woojin’s smile to grow. “I’m already sick of this cast and it’s only been a day.” Woojin’s smile turns to full-blown laughter and he walks over to help Chan up, help which Chan accepts readily.

“Speaking of, we should go check up on your bike tomorrow, since we’re busy today.”

At the mention of his bike, Chan can feel his mood beginning to sour, something that Woojin clearly picks up on.

“Hey, if you want, we can get takeout tonight?” Woojin asks. “You know, to celebrate you getting out of hospital and all.”

The offer cheers Chan up a little but not a lot, and he nods with a smile that hopefully doesn’t look forced. For what it’s worth he seems to succeed as Woojin doesn’t say anything about it. Or maybe he’s just trying to be a good friend, who knows.

* * *

They head out in Woojin's cousin's car, who leant it to him specifically so that Chan would be able to get places, since he can’t ride his bike, or even sit on the back of Woojin’s with his arm being the way it is. The thought upsets Chan, he feels helpless, needing to be driven everywhere by someone else, though he doesn’t dare let himself blame Woojin’s cousin, the help is both needed and appreciated.

Eventually they make it to the café they had agreed upon that morning on the group chat, it’s not The Gallery, again, just in case Dave or Mateo is there and able to overhear them. But it’s a nice little student café, with exposed brick walls and soft, orange lighting, contrasting with the sunlight streaming through the large windows.

Minho, Seungmin, Hyunjin and Changbin are already there, sitting around a circular table in the off-centre of the café floor. Woojin and Chan say their hellos when they come into view of the others, and sit down, immediately being drawn into a conversation about exams and how much each of them think they’ve failed.

“Woah hey what happened to your arm? You have a massive bruise” Minho suddenly says, making Chan look up from his menu, thinking for a moment that his friend is talking to him. He’s about to say “what the hell do you _think_ happened?” thinking that it’s a joke, when he notices that Minho isn’t looking at him, he’s looking at Changbin.

Changbin looks down at his arm, and Chan also notices the large greenish-yellow patch creeping out from under Changbin’s t-shirt sleeve.

“Oh, that” Changbin says, “The other day Tomas asked if he could punch me and I was so bewildered I just said yeah.”

“Jesus christ” Woojin responds, shaking his head in exasperation now that he knows it’s just Changbin’s nightmare work experience class. “At least you won’t have to look after them for much longer.”

Changbin nods, “I’m so excited. I think I’m actually going mad.”

“That bad?” Seungmin asks as he takes a drink of his water.

“Lewis told me giraffes weren’t real and he said it with such conviction I actually believed him for a moment.”

“Oof” Seungmin says sympathetically.

From then, Chan and Woojin are able to order their food and drink, and the conversation moves back to exams. More specifically, Hyunjin’s art exam, which starts tomorrow, until they’re interrupted by the arrival of Jisung and Felix. After another chorus of hellos, Jisung bends down to kiss Chan on the side of the mouth from behind and offer his own “hi there” before sitting down. They order some drinks, Felix gets a coke and Jisung gets some cherryade, while the others catch them up on the conversation so far.

“Sucks that you got a black cast, Chan” Felix says, poking said cast. Chan doesn’t feel it at all. “I mean I know it’s kinda your aesthetic and all, but I really wanted to sign it.”

“Get a white pen” Seungmin offers.

“Or a glow in the dark one!” Hyunjin says, excited, making Felix exaggerate considering it.

Chan didn’t even think about getting a different colour cast, but hearing what everyone else is saying they would write on it, he almost regrets it.

“Alright, I don’t wanna rush everyone, but I need to revise and write some essays tonight” Minho says, sounding like he would much rather die, “so should we, you know, talk about what we’re meeting up for?”

“No that’s fair” Chan is quick to reassure. They do need to talk about it.

They quickly sum up everything that has happened so far with Dave, just to make sure that they’re all on the same page. Though at one point during said summary, Woojin calls him ‘David,’ confusing some of them, before Woojin explains that Dave’s _actual_ name is David, it’s just that no one calls him that. Everyone gets a bit of a laugh out of that, especially as Minho and Hyunjin loudly cry out about how they had no idea and that their whole life is a lie.

“Do you think we could maybe pretend that we did it?” Jisung suggests after a while of unhelpful brainstorming.

“I don’t think there’s any way to pretend that, you know, that convincingly” Woojin says.

Jisung frowns. “Then… Maybe we should just record it?” He sounds uncomfortable, but is looking at Chan questioningly, and Chan knows for a fact Jisung would do it if it meant helping Changbin. “As much as it sucks it seems like that might be one of our only options.”

“I don’t think I would wanna record… that” Chan says slowly, hoping that Jisung picks up on the fact that he means it would be a huge breach of privacy and what they both feel comfortable with, and not any disgust of Jisung himself. Thankfully, that’s how Jisung seems to take it, and he agrees with a palpable relief in his voice.

“Maybe he just wants the video because he’s a big ol’perve” Hyunjin drawls, and despite how disturbing of an idea that truly is, everyone manages to laugh at it, knowing that Hyunjin’s just joking around.

“Do you” Changbin starts after the laughter is over, “do you think we should just let him post the video?”

Unsurprisingly, everyone is against it, and Changbin is quick to talk over them to quiet their protests, the loudest coming from Jisung and Chan himself.

“I’m just saying” he clarifies, “I don’t want my friends to have to do anything that would make them uncomfortable, especially to that degree. I dunno.”

Chan is about to protest again, when’s interrupted by Jeongin’s arrival, who looks kind of tired from a school study session. Poor kid, he’s starting his exams very soon as well. Everyone greets the youngest friend group member, and Woojin orders him a lemonade.

“What are you all talking about?” Jeongin asks, pushing his backpack further under the table.

“Just the whole Dave situation” Minho explains, “trying to think of something to do.”

“Any luck so far?”

“Nope.”

Jeongin looks at the table for a second before raising his gaze again. “Could you not just… I don’t know if this would work, but could you not just like, steal his phone? And delete the video off it?”

“I mean we could, but he probably has copies” Seungmin counters.

“He definitely has copies” Hyunjin says with a sigh, brushing his hand through his fringe. Jisung however, perks up a little, drawing attention to him.

“I think Jeongin might be onto something there” he explains, “there’s not exactly many places you can keep a video that can't be accessed from online.”

“Are you” Changbin asks slowly and deliberately, “suggesting that we actually _steal_ Dave’s phone and laptop?”

Jisung shrugs one shoulder and grins. “"I mean... There's more of us of him, so we'd be more easily believed... Just saying."

Everyone laughs until they realise he's serious.

“Wait are we actually thinking of doing this?” Woojin asks, sounding surprised.

“Is anyone saying they’re against it?” Minho counters, and when no one speaks up, he gestures to the group as if to say ‘see?’

“Okay, so we’ve established that no one is against the idea” Felix says, “but do any of us even know how to begin to do that?”

When no one else speaks up, Seungmin heaves a little sigh to himself, or maybe it’s just a deep breath, Chan doesn’t know, and starts talking.

“Do we know anyone who’s close enough to Dave and can maybe swipe his phone when he isn't looking?”

“No one close enough to take his phone or laptop besides Mateo.” Hyunjin says. “Who's a dick.”

As everyone else murmurs their general agreements, Chan finds himself pausing, going over all of the interactions he’s had with the other student.

“Okay” he says, when he’s sufficiently confident about what he’s going to say next. “I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but Mateo hasn’t actually done anything?”

When no one stops him to disagree, Chan continues.

“I’m just pointing out that the only one who seems to actually be saying or doing anything about this whole bet thing is Dave, Mateo only really hangs around. But he hasn’t said a goddamn thing to me. Or anyone else I assume?”

No one speaks up to say otherwise.

“This may be a bit of a long shot since I have no idea what’s going on in his head or behind the scenes of this whole fucked up operation, but just based on the interactions we’ve had, and my own personal experiences, I think Mateo might be able to help us? It’s a huge risk since it might piss Dave off enough to release the video, but it’s something?”

He ends on more of a question, not completely sure in his own reasoning. The uncertainty in his voice, broadcasting clearly that he’s ready to take it all back as soon as someone says that they think it won’t work, or offers counter-evidence, clearly gets to Felix, who bangs his hand on the table, startling Seungmin and Minho.

“This has been going on for like five months at this point” he says loudly, obviously frustrated. “Dave’s clearly just having some kind of power-trip and isn’t actually interested in just releasing the video. The fact that we’re so scared and nervous is probably what’s keeping him extending the bet, or the deadline, or whatever the fuck it is now.”

There’s varying levels of vocalised agreement at Felix’s mini-outburst, and even Chan finds himself a little more pumped-up to finally at least _try_ and end this whole charade. He’s also clearly not the only one that feels this way if the way Woojin and a few of the others lean forward, sit straighter, stop fidgeting, is anything to go by.

“Dave is still in exams for another week or so” Woojin says, low and a hell of a lot more confident than Chan sounded just before Felix’s input. “That means that we have a week to get in contact with Mateo or decide if that's what we're doing. Does anyone have Mateo’s phone number?”

“I do” Minho says, pulling out his phone from his pocket. “I’ll put it in the group chat.”

Chan feels his phone vibrate in his jeans pocket, so he knows that Minho’s sent it.

After some more discussion, they decide that Chan will text Mateo and ask him to meet up with all of them in a few days during the holiday, since he should be done with exams by then. And depending on if that goes well or not, then they can meet up again and form the next part of their plan.

“And if this goes well, we can all go out drinking” Minho says.

“Not Jeongin though, obviously” Hyunjin says, prompting everyone to agree with him.

Jeongin groans in jest, but he doesn’t protest the same way he would have before the whole tattoo incident. Clearly the event, or maybe whatever Seungmin and Hyunjin said to him that day got through to him. Chan’s thankful for that. Jeongin may be eighteen and so no longer a child, and also the age that the rest of the biker gang was when they started drinking, but Chan doesn’t want to be an enabler and let the kid grow up fully just yet. Sue him.

“Look I have an exam in the morning and I really need to go revise, so I’m gonna head out” Minho says, already pushing his chair out with his feet so that he can stand up.

With that, everyone decides to split, since some of them still have exams, and Hyunjin says he and Jeongin should be getting home. Changbin says same, he’s done with exams, but his parents want to take him out to dinner that night and he needs to get ready since apparently it’s a pretty high-tier restaurant. Everyone makes fun of him for being fancy and rich, before wishing everyone else a goodbye and a safe drive home. It’s still said in the joking way they always say “drive home safe”, but Chan can hear the added layer of sincerity in everyone’s voices. Clearly his accident didn’t just affect him.

When it’s just Chan, Jisung, Woojin and Seungmin, they take the time to go over the plan one more time over some food, before changing the topic to something a lot lighter, namely the latest youtuber drama that they can all laugh about. Though soon after they’ve finished their second round of drinks, Woojin admits that he should get home since he has work soon, which by default, means that Chan has to go as well, since Woojin is his ride. Something he complains good-naturedly about as Jisung helps him put his coat on, one sleeve on and the other just hanging over his shoulder.

“It’s a look” Jisung admits.

“A good one?”

“Oh yeah” Jisung purrs, though he doesn’t give Chan enough time to say anything in return before he’s kissing him.

“And stop complaining” he chides gently once they’ve pulled apart. “We can have a proper date later.”

“You promise?”

“Of course, handsome, don’t worry about it.”

And with that final goodbyes are said, Jisung and Seungmin leave together, and after Chan and Woojin have wished Jisung luck for his art exam, they also leave.

Woojin drives them back to the apartment to drop Chan off before going to work. And after tidying his room as best he can with his one functional hand. Chan lies on his bed and laments to the empty air about his arm. Predictably, his room doesn’t answer him, so he grabs his phone and laments to the group chat with a lot of emojis, and gets some sympathetic messages in return.

However, just before he closes his phone, he decides to do the first step of their plan. He scrolls upwards in the group chat until he finds the message Minho sent them earlier that day. He copies the phone number and saves it in his phone under the name ‘Mateo’ before swiping it and opening up the text message history, which is completely empty.

His thumb hovers over the keypad for a moment, reflecting his hesitation, before pressing down and typing out a quick message.

 **Chris  
** Hey. This might seem out of the blue but do you think we can meet up at some point?

 **Chris**  
Without Dave

Chan waits on the screen for five minutes, but when there’s no reply, he closes his phone and puts it on his nightstand. A little disheartened, he pulls his laptop out from under his bed and turns it on, deciding to go on social media for a bit and wondering if their plan will even work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is so late and for that I apologise. I moved house, we had 2 regional lockdowns, I started uni again (and my timetable is alllllll sorted of fucked up so thats fun), and I didnt have internet for a solid couple weeks in the middle there. It's been A Time. But I'm determined to finish this fic!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this slightly shorter chapter, please leave a review, they give me so much motivation and I love hearing from you guys :D


	14. He Made My Dull Heart Light Up With Joy

When Chan wakes up the next day, he has a text from Hyunjin. That’s nothing unusual, however, the contents of said text are.

 **Hyunjin**  
Hey can we talk?

Hyunjin’s not usually so serious, and Chan knows that Hyunjin hates the “can we talk” message, so he wouldn’t send it if it wasn’t something that they seriously needed to talk about. And casting his mind back over the last few days, Chan can’t think of anything that the younger male would particularly need to talk to him about that’s _that_ serious. However, as much as Chan wants to answer immediately, his nature begging him to try and help his friend, he knows he doesn’t have the mental energy to do that right now, not with what he has to do today.

 **Chris**  
I have to go check out my bike today, can it wait?

 **Chris**  
You can say no

A few seconds later, Hyunjin responds.

 **Hyunjin**  
Yeah it can. Hope it goes well

Chan severely doubts that he’s going to have a good time today, but the well-wishes are appreciated. He turns his phone screen off and gets up so that he can make some breakfast. It’s a bit of a struggle with one hand, and he has a hell of a time trying to pour the milk into his cereal since it’s a full bottle and so rather heavy.

Eventually, Woojin comes in, and when he sees what Chan is going through, comes over to help him, laughing lightly about how sad the situation is.

“I got a weird text from Hyunjin this morning” Chan tells Woojin while they’re eating.

“Oh?” Woojin says, looking up from where he’s buttering his second slice of toast.

Chan shrugs his good shoulder, “I didn’t get to find out what it was about, but he said ‘can we talk’, which is pretty weird for him.”

“That is weird” Woojin says, checking his phone. “He didn’t send me anything.”

Also a bit weird.

“You gonna be okay today?” Woojin eventually asks, “with seeing your bike and all? We can do it a different day if you don’t think you’re ready.”

Chan forces himself to take a deep breath and not let his internal emotions show too plainly on his face. “I mean I’m obviously not looking forward to it, but I should be okay.”

Something in the way Woojin looks at him tells Chan that his friend doesn’t exactly believe him.

* * *

After they finish breakfast they both head out at about eleven in the morning, deciding to just have a late lunch since they don’t know how long this visit is going to take. Woojin drives them to the garage, with Chan doing his best to direct them using his phone’s in-built satnav, directing them to the address Chan’s EMT gave him back when he was in the ambulance. On the way there they periodically sing along to some songs on the radio, which does a lot to help calm Chan's nerves.

The garage is pretty small but obviously well-run, they pull into the front and Woojin rolls down the window as a woman approaches the side of the car and leans forward so that she can hear them over the engine.

“We’re here about a bike” Woojin explains, “a red Ducati, was involved in a car crash four days ago.”

Recognition crosses her face, as well as sympathy, which does nothing to settle the dread in Chan’s stomach, and she gestures to somewhere behind her.

“It’s in the back, you can park over there and just head right in.”

Woojin thanks her and winds the window back up before driving into the parking space she pointed out. They get out, and Chan realises that she’s followed them.

“I’ve told Danny you’re coming” she says, “he’s the tall one with the unruly mane of hair, just through there.”

Woojin thanks her again and locks the car, but just before they start walking, she catches Chan’s eye and gestures with her head towards the cast.

“Sorry about your arm.”

“It’s fine” Chan responds automatically, and she bids them goodbye before heading back to where she was before. The two of them follow her lead and head off towards the back of the garage. After a tiny bit of asking around, they eventually find the guy they’re looking for, who shakes Chan’s hand and introduces himself as Danny. He asks to see some proof of ownership and Chan shows him multiple pictures on his phone of him with the bike, spanning the last few years, as well as the receipt from his latest MOT. That seems good enough for Danny, who takes them into the back-most part of the garage where apparently his bike is being kept.

“I’m so sorry man” Danny says on the way there, “the bike was gorgeous, you have no idea how crushed I was for you when Andrew called me and told me what happened.”

Chan accepts the apology, and Danny smiles at him before opening the door and letting Chan go inside.

His bike is _destroyed_.

The front is crushed, the wheel is broken and bust and the front axel is bent. Chan spots the flywheel flange, the part that had been giving him trouble starting the bike the last few months, has completely snapped, leaving the bike unable to start at all.

For a long moment he just stands there, but then he’s walking forward, kneeling next to it and gingerly putting his hand on the body and running it over, inspecting the dents and scratches littering the side with a sort of detached horror. He feels a hand on his shoulder and he knows it’s Woojin, offering him silent support.

He turns around to see Danny watching from the corner of the room, sympathetic.

“Are you sure there's nothing that can be done?" He asks, even though he already knows the answer.

Danny shakes his head sadly.

"Sorry man, the 1098 is a beautiful bike but it's old now and parts are hard to get. It's already been written off, category B."

“What does category B mean?” Woojin asks for the pair of them, and Danny walks a little further into the room, closing the door behind him.

“Basically just means that the vehicle isn't allowed back on the road, but serviceable parts can be salvaged. You’ll receive the money up to the market value for the bike, and then it’ll be sold for salvage. So for you, with this type of bike, you’ll get around seven thousand-eight hundred dollars. Though you’ll have to check that yourself. But we can get everything sorted for you as long as you do it through your insurance.”

Chan lets the words wash over him, trying to hide the shaking of his hand from where it’s still pressed flat against one of the larger dents.

“Can I keep it? The bike?”

Danny leans against the wall and folds his arms, “yeah you can, but you’ll get less money, and you have to know that it’ll never be roadworthy again.”

Chan nods in recognition of what he’s been told.

“Can I please have some time to think about it?”

Pushing himself off the wall, Danny nods. “Sure man, take as much time as you need. Just call me back in when you’ve decided.” He walks out the room, closing the door softly behind him.

Chan sighs, the shakiness of it broadcasting how he feels if the way Woojin’s hand tightens it’s grip on his shoulder is anything to go by.

“It sucks” Woojin says, “but what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know” Chan says honestly. “But I should probably call my parents.”

Woojin makes a noise of agreement and lets go of his shoulder so that he can stand up and walk to the other side of the room. He pulls out his phone with a shaky hand and dials his dad’s number, holding it to his ear and listening to it ring.

His dad answers not soon after, and Chan explains everything he knows about the situation. When he gets to the part about the bike being completely written off his dad makes a choking sound on the other end of the line, and guilt stabs Chan in the chest, gentle as a blunt knife.

“What should I do, dad?” Chan asks, voice wobbling a lot more than before.

“What do you want to do, son?”

Chan thinks about it for a second before answering.

“I want to keep it. But there's no space and it was your bike before it was mine, so I don't know.”

“Chris” his dad interrupts, sounding slightly exasperated yet fond. “It’s _your_ bike, not mine anymore. So it’s your decision. But saying that, if it were me I would take the money. The parts are too old to use for fixing up another bike, and keeping it will just make you sad.”

Chan listens intently, taking the advice straight to heart.

“I know you’re right” he says, wanting to run a hand through his hair but being unable to since he’s holding his phone. “I just can’t believe this is happening.”

“That’s life though isn’t it” his dad huffs, “sometimes it sucks a lot more than other times. But ya gotta look at the bright side, hadn’t you been saying that you had been wanting a new bike lately?”

“Not like this” Chan counteracts, and his dad huffs again, amused.

After a little bit more talking, they hang up, and Chan signals to Woojin that he’s made up his mind, who calls Danny back in.

“So, you decided what you want to do?” Danny asks, and Chan nods.

“I’m going to sell the bike.”

Danny gets then to fill in a form and says that the money will be transferred in the next few days before wishing them luck. Before they leave, Chan strokes the seat one last time, remembering his first ride with his dad. He’d been fourteen at the time, had been begging his dad to take him on a ride for almost a whole year at that point. His dad had eventually caved and taken him for a slow enough loop around their neighborhood. Chan doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the feeling of the wind hitting his coat, or of being pressed against his dad’s chest as their speed had increased. The Ducati had purred and growled like a beast unleashed, but it hadn’t thrown them, hadn’t bucked or screamed or stuttered. It had carried them smoothly the whole way, and never once did Chan feel unsafe.

When he and Woojin get in the car, Chan closes the door, and he starts crying.

The tears rip out of him with a vengeance, and he keens through his teeth as he sobs out all his feelings of loss and grief. Immediately, Woojin is leaning over the gearbox to hug him at an awkward angle, and Chan fists his hand in his roommate’s jacket as Woojin tells him that he didn’t deserve this.

Eventually he stops crying, and Woojin lets him go.

“The first time I rode the bike on my own” Chan finds himself saying after a moment more of silence, “I went flying off the handlebars and whacked my head on the road. It didn’t hurt, I was going pretty slow just in the back lanes and wearing a helmet. My dad couldn’t stop laughing once he realised I was okay, just completely dumbfounded.”

Woojin smiles at the story, and they sit in silence for a few more long moments before Woojin checks his phone.

“Jisung’s art exam will be almost finished by now, so that means he has no more left, same as us.”

Chan remembers Hyunjin's message all of a sudden and pulls out his phone as Woojin starts up the car so that they can begin the drive back home.

 **Chris**  
Hey, I’m here

 **Hyunjin**  
Hey, what happened with the bike?

 **Chris**  
I’ll put it in the group chat later, what’s up with you though?

 **Hyunjin**  
This might sound like a weird question but bear with me

 **Hyunjin**  
What would you do if Jisung told you he wanted a non-sexual relationship?

Chan frowns at his phone, confused.

 **Chris**  
I wouldn’t mind, why?

The message takes a little while to come through, but when it does, Chan’s left even more confused than he just was.

 **Hyunjin**  
Thanks Chan

It doesn’t feel sarcastic, and Chan decides to drop it despite his curiosity, as it’s apparent that Hyunjin isn’t willing to talk about it just yet. His phone vibrates, surprising him slightly, and for a moment he thinks it’s Hyunjin again, but the contact that lights up his screen is a different one, one that already has Chan feeling a bit lighter than before.

 **Jisung <3**  
I’M FREEEEEEEE

 **Jisung <3  
**NO MORE EXAMS BITCHES

 **Chris  
** Congrats!!

 **Jisung <3**  
thank i’m v happy its over

 **Jisung <3**  
how did it go?

 **Chris**  
No more exams is always a good feeling tbh

 **Chris**  
And it wasn’t great ngl

 **Jisung <3**  
uh oh. tell me about it?

Over the course of the rest of the drive home, Chan explains what happened at the garage to his boyfriend, who is very upset for him, but happy that he at least got something out of it.

 **Jisung <3**  
do you still wanna go on a date?

 **Chris**  
Yeah I do. Moping around is not gonna do anything for me

 **Jisung <3**  
take the time to grieve, you need it

Chan finds himself smiling at his phone as warmth blooms in his chest. He knows that Jisung couldn’t possibly fully understand just how important his bike was too him, not really. But the fact that he understands that it’s worth grieving and is willing to let Chan do that means a lot to him.

 **Jisung <3**  
ive planned a date for tomorrow

 **Chris**  
Oh? What is it?

 **Jisung <3**  
tis a surprise 😉

 **Chris**  
Now you’ve made me curious

 **Jisung <3**  
good x

 **Jisung <3**  
i’ll be over to your place at 6pm

 **Chris**  
Ok, looking forward to seeing you x

They pull up outside the house and head up to their apartment. Once there, Chan tells Woojin that he’s going to spend some time in his room, something that Woojin immediately says is fine, and to let him know if he needs anything, which Chan is thankful for.

Once he’s in his room and on his bed, Chan quickly types up everything that happened at the garage into the Korea’s Gucci Gang group chat, omitting a lot more details than he did in his messages to Jisung, but still at least summarising everything. The chat is active, with Changbin celebrating that his work experience is over and everyone sending celebratory gifs and images. Chan sends his own gif before waiting for a lull in the conversation and sending his messages.

Immediately everyone is offering their condolences, and Chan thanks them and follows it up with a message about how he’s going to be turning his phone off because he wants to be alone for a little while. But if there’s an emergency, to tell Woojin to get him. Chan smiles at the sheer outpouring of love and support from his friends, who tell him to go rest and process, and the advice to take a nap or listen to some music he likes. He thanks them again and turns his phone off, putting it in the drawer of his nightstand.

After that, he just lies on his bed and allows himself to feel sad. Memories of the bike, of when his dad gave it to him for Christmas that one year, of his first MOT, his first maintenance session with it, buying his first wax kit, riding with his friends, with his dad, by himself, with Jisung. The freedom of not having to be driven around all the time like he has to be now, not that he isn’t grateful to Woojin for doing so.

Eventually, his thoughts end up drifting to university, about going into third year, about living in his apartment next year before having to find a new place, or if he wants to find a new place. Is he going to do a masters? He hasn’t thought about it much before now, still doesn’t necessarily have to. He has time to decide yet.

He picks his phone back up but keeps it on silent and with the wifi turned off, instead just plugging his headphones into the jack and playing one of his older playlists, the one he listened to most whenever he was just going on a drive by himself to clear his head.

Unintentionally, he ends up falling asleep like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm gonna go back to writing and get a good upload schedule going!  
> *Immediately gets an ear infection*  
> Me: Sometimes I imagine death so much it feels like a memory :)


	15. Pull Me Closer

It’s about one in the afternoon the next day, and Chan is hanging out with Woojin in their living room, when he gets a text from Mateo saying that he’ll meet up with Chan.

 **Chris**  
Are you joking? Like are you messing with me?

 **Mateo**  
I wouldn’t of bothered answering if I was gonna waste your or my time with that

 **Mateo**  
I haven’t had a chance to say this but I heard about the whole accident, I’m sorry it happened to you, and losing your bike like that

 **Chris**  
Sorry, just wanted to make sure. And thank you. Also, can you bring Dave’s laptop with you to the meeting?

Chan holds his breath and can hear Woojin doing the same from where he’s reading along with Chan over his shoulder. This is it, the moment where Mateo can either figure out what they’re doing and help them, or go to Dave and ruin everything.

Four whole minutes go by before the reply pops up on Chan’s phone screen.

 **Mateo**  
Ok. I’ll bring it

All the air Chan was holding in his chest explodes out of him like a particularly enthusiastic deflating balloon, and he smothers a scream of relief and tension.

“He might be just saying that” Woojin reminds him, “you could be talking to Dave right now.”

Chan nods, remembering that they’re not out of the woods yet, and quickly types out a response.

 **Chris**  
We’ll meet up on Friday if that’s okay with you?

 **Mateo**  
This Friday?

 **Chris**  
Yeah, the 21st

 **Mateo**  
Ok, text me where when you know

 **Chris**  
Havent decided that yet but I’ll let you know when I do

 **Mateo**  
K. Will Damien be there?

“Minho?” Woojin asks out loud, echoing Chan’s thoughts and confusion exactly. “What does he have to do with anything?”

“I have no idea” Chan responds.

 **Chris**  
Why?

Five minutes pass with no response, and Chan realises that he isn’t getting one.

“That was really weird.”

“Sure was” Woojin agrees, “you should put the meeting time and stuff in the group chat, let everyone else know.”

“Yeah you’re right” Chan says, screenshotting the conversation before opening KGG and pasting them into the chat.

**\- Korea’s Gucci Gang -**

**_Aussieaussieaussie sent (3) screenshots_ **

**Frinkles:** Well  
**Frinkles** : That sounds like a trap

 **Bab:** He agreed tho?

 **Aussieboo:** Ya but the point is that he could be agreeing but actually telling Dave

 **Bab:** Oh  
**Bab:** You think it’s a trap?

 **Aussieboo:** Maybe?  
**Aussieboo:** Idk Mateo enough to say if hes being genuine

 **Changbean:** I Don’t Like It

 **Sharpay Evans:** guess we’ll find out later if it’s genuine

 **Dandelion:** Jisung’s right

 **MinHOE:** woahwoahwoah hold up  
**MinHOE:** Why does he want ME there????  
**MinHOE:** Am???? Concerned??????

 **Frinkles:** Oh damn I skipped right over that wtf

 **Changbean:** Don’t Like This

 **MinHOE:** I’m??????????????

 **Sharpay Evans:** that’s highkey wild as hell  
**Sharpay Evans:** wonder why he wants you there

 **Frinkles:** Maybe he just Likes you

 **Bab:** orifewedrkftgrlfgt

 **Sharpay Evans:** aqsdksldk

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** Omfg

 **Aussieboo:** DOFKKLSEDFRKG

 **Dandelion:** Lmaooooo  
**Dandelion:** That would be so unfortunate

 **MinHOE:** I mean its not That unfortunate  
**MinHOE:** He IS pretty hot

 **Frinkles:** EFJKWELDKRFTGFELDRFKGT

 **Sharpay Evans:** OMFGJWERFKJGH

 **Changbean:** This took a turn

 **MinHOE:** No no it’s cool I’ll go and I’ll be like a secret agent  
**MinHOE:** I always wanted to be the sexy spy on an espionage mission

Chan and Woojin chuckle as the flood of keysmashes and laughing emojis are spammed into the chat at Minho’s message.

 **Bab:** I mean it is kind of a spy mission cause we’re hacking the mainframe

 **Frinkles:** I don’t think deleting a video from someones laptop counts as hacking the mainframe

 **Changbean:** I just had a thought  
**Changbean:** Is just deleting the video off the laptop suspicious?

 **Aussieboo:** That’s a good point actually

 **Bab:** Maybe he wouldn’t notice?

 **Dandelion:** I can download a virus onto his computer that corrupts his mp4 files if you want?

Chan’s mouth drops open of its own accord. He vaguely remembers Seungmin saying that he codes in his free time, but he never thought it could be used to do something like this. It’s perfect, provided this all goes well and it isn’t a trap of course. He quickly re-reads it to make sure that he isn’t hallucinating, before scrolling past all the shocked reactions of everyone else in the chat to type and send his own message.

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** If you can do that Seungmin that would be amazing

 **Dandelion:** I’ll do it, but its lowkey illegal so you guys gotta cover for me

 **MinHOE:** OBVIOUSLY we’re gonna cover for you you little hacker you

Chan isn’t too worried about leaving a digital trail since the messaging app they use has end to end encryption, meaning that not even the app providers can see their conversations to flag it.

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** Minho will you come with Seungmin and I?  
**Aussieaussieaussie:** Idk why Mateo wants you there but it might help us out

 **MinHOE:** I love being used by my friends

 **Frinkles:** peodrktkgyh

 **MinHOE:** I’m jk, I’ll come along

 **Aussieaussieaussie:** Thank you

* * *

When it gets to about half five in the afternoon, Chan starts to get ready for his date with Jisung. Because he knows nothing about it, he decides to dress nice, but not overdress himself. Although dressing himself is an ordeal with just one hand, he eventually manages to pull on a pair of dark grey jeans, a black button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and his leather jacket.

 **Chris**  
Im ready, where are you

 **Jisung <3**  
behind you

 **Chris**  
Very funny

 **Jisung <3  
**dfglhjkhgfdfg

 **Jisung <3  
**im actually like in the elevator rn, almost at your floor

By the time Chan’s left his room, crossed the living room and opened the apartment door, Jisung is already outside it. He’s wearing a millennial-pink long-sleeved crop top, torso fishnets, a black choker with pink roses on, black jeans, and a pair of thigh-high black boots that Chan’s never seen before. He also has a black and pink jacket thrown over his arm, matching his striking black eyeliner and pink eyeshadow.

“You look gorgeous” Chan says immediately, and Jisung laughs softly and kisses him.

“You don’t look too bad yourself.”

Chan tries not to blush and steps out of the apartment, locking the door behind him and walking to the elevator with Jisung.

“So what’s happening?” He asks as they step into the lift.

Jisung lightly slaps his chest and grins at him, “stop trying to ruin the surprise.”

“It can still be a surprise if you tell me, I’m a good actor” Chan responds, prompting a light teasing match between them all the way down the building and onto the street, where an uber is waiting for them. They get in and the driver immediately takes off, letting Chan know that the driver probably already knows where they’re going _specifically_ so that Chan didn’t overhear it when he got in the car. A sneaky one his boyfriend is sometimes.

“I never got a chance to ask, but how did the rest of the art exam go?” Chan asks, threading his fingers through Jisung’s and noticing that Jisung’s nails are a baby pink colour, with the ring fingers being black with pink stars on.

“It was long” Jisung responds, “halfway through I ran out of brushos, well, the blue and purple one specifically and I was like, ‘I dunno if I can ask for more’ so I just used the red and blue to fuck around and see what happened. Turned out better in my opinion.”

Chan looks at him, surprised. “You changed your whole piece because you were too awkward to ask for more… brusho thingies?”

Jisung laughs at him and squeezes his hand “brusho inks. And yeah, figured why not. Ended up working out for me in the end though so who’s the real winner here? That’s right baby, me, and I didn’t even have to ask anyone for another pot or refill, so I double win, I’m a _double_ winner.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Chan laughs, of course Jisung would risk his entire final art project on a whim and have it turn out fantastic anyway. That’s literally just like him.

Eventually they pull into a park and the car stops. Jisung thanks the driver and gets out, Chan following his lead.

“Are we going to have a picnic?” Chan asks, looking around at the green stretches of grass and couple families milling around.

Jisung laughs and grabs Chan’s hand again, leading him down a pathway. “Not quite.”

They walk in mostly silence for a little while until they reach the edge of what looks like a small lake. Dropping Chan’s hand, Jisung heads down some steps and starts talking to a man standing next to a small brick shack-type building.

Confused, Chan makes his way down after his boyfriend, being extra careful to not fall since he won’t be able to catch himself with his left arm. By the time he’s gotten to the brickhouse, the man has gone and Jisung is standing there, obviously excited.

“What was that all about?” He asks, and Jisung just grins at him.

He’s about to press, when suddenly the man comes back with something Chan was absolutely _not_ expecting to see.

A paddle-boat.

Whatever his expression is must be hilarious, because Jisung immediately breaks out into loud peals of laughter, and even the man, who Chan assumes is the renter for the boats, is smiling.

“I… A paddle boat?” He asks eventually, prompting Jisung to laugh even louder before finally calming down.

“Surprise!” He yells, “thought you might appreciate doing something that doesn’t involve your arms.”

Chan glances at his cast before huffing a laugh of his own. “Fair enough.”

Jisung steps forward and grabs his good arm, pulling him gently towards the boat.

“Get in get in, I’ll steer, but I’m gonna be relying on your leg muscles to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to moving around.”

Still a little bewildered, Chan agrees, letting the man help him into the boat and show him how to work the pedals. Next to him, Jisung slides into the driver’s seat and listens to the explanation. The man asks if either of them would like a life jacket, and they both say no. The lake isn’t treacherous or deep enough to require one by law thankfully, and they can both swim just fine.

The man wishes them a good time and they set off, calmly paddling their to the middle of the lake. Chan has to admit, it’s very pretty. It’s June, so the sun isn’t super close to setting yet, but the way it reflects off the water is very pleasing to look at, and it feels nice on his skin.

As they paddle their way out, making light conversation, Chan realises that in the centre island is a small café, and they’re heading right for it.

“More to the surprise than the boat?” He asks, mostly for teasing’s sake.

“Surprisingly, yes” Jisung responds, sounding amused, and pulls up the boat in a little dock that looks like it’s made specifically for paddle-boats.

They get out and walk across the wooden dock around the edge of the island, hand in hand, until they reach the café, where they go in and order at the counter. Chan gets the steak and Jisung gets the lasagne, and from then they both head to one of the outside tables to wait for their food and drink.

“I gotta admit” Chan says as they sit down, “I’m impressed, I never would have thought of something like this for a date.”

Jisung lights up, clearly proud of himself and happy that Chan likes it.

“I wanted to do something special for you. Took me a while to figure out what, but I eventually decided you might like something like this.”

Warmth blossoms in Chan’s chest at Jisung’s words, touched that his boyfriend wanted to do something specifically to treat him.

The café is small, with only a couple inside-tables, and a few more outside, poles holding up bulb lights string their way around the outside of the small island, and the couple trees that are they are wreathed in fairy lights. None of the lights are on right now, but Chan can imagine how pretty it looks when the sun sets and they actually turn them on.

The food arrives after some more conversation, and Chan can admit that it’s really damn good. Jisung also admits that he’s been here once before, so he at least knew the food was good before he brought Chan along, prompting them to laugh about what would have happened if they’d come all this way and the food ended up being terrible. Jisung takes the side of that it would have ruined the whole date, while Chan defends his position that it wouldn’t have, and it would have probably been really funny.

After they’re done eating, they talk for a bit more, until the prospect of dessert gets brought up.

You wanna get dessert?” Jisung asks, “or should I just get the bill?”

“You’re not paying for dinner” Chan responds, “you paid for the uber, the boat renting and the drinks at the counter, I’m paying for dinner.”

Jisung smiles at him and cups his chin in his hands. “Yeah because I want to treat _you_ for once, now shut up and let me pay.”

It’s a sweet sentiment, one that once upon a time would have shut Chan up for good due to his bashfulness, but he’s grown since then, and he’s not letting this go so easily.

“I just got paid like eight thousand dollars, at least let me get the desserts.”

Jisung laughs and takes his chin out of his hands, “you know what, deal.”

Chan orders a slice of millionaire’s cheesecake and Jisung gets a fruit sundae. They chat again, and somehow the conversation turns to their friend group.

“Oh yeah, Hyunjin sent me a weird text yesterday, it was really odd.”

He tells Jisung about the whole conversation, who listens seemingly very intently as he picks the strawberries out of his sundae with his fork so he can eat them.

“I actually asked Seungmin about this” Jisung says once Chan is finished talking. “And he said it’s okay for me to tell you about this. But the whole… Drama thing that’s going on with Seungmin and Hyunjin is because Seungmin is asexual, and having to deal with Hyunjin has been kinda hard on him.”

“That explains the text message” Chan says, shocked at this new information, but also at all the puzzle pieces slowly clicking into place.

“Yep” Jisung agrees, gesturing with his fork, “so when Seungmin was not talking to Hyunjin, it was because he liked him romantically, but Hyunjin talking about sex and stuff made him think that Hyunjin could never be into him that way. So that night where we all went clubbing, Seungmin saw Hyunjin grinding with someone and that’s why he wanted to leave so soon.”

Chan at least knows this part, but he lets Jisung continue anyway with the added context of _why_ it was all happening.

“Hyunjin saw him leave the club and chased after him but Seungmin really didn’t wanna see him cause he thought they were like, into each other you know? So he just left and ignored all of Hyunjin’s messages for a few days.”

Chan remembers that night in the club, how defeated Seungmin looked, how insistent Jisung was on taking him home before Seungmin said it was fine. The context makes it so much worse.

“So after that” Jisung continues after he’s had a drink from his glass of some fancy cocktail Chan doesn’t remember the name of, “Hyunjin really wanted to meet up but Seungmin said no and told him that he wanted to be alone. Which of course only works if you’re not going to the same school. Long story short Hyunjin saw Seungmin on campus between the art and English buildings and tried to talk to him, and Seungmin ended up yelling at him. Hyunjin yelled back apparently, something about how he thought they were into one another, and Seungmin said he thought so too until he saw Hyunjin at the club.”

“But they weren’t together?” Chan says, confused.

Jisung nods, “yeah I know, Hyunjin thought that Seungmin didn’t want to speak to him because he saw him grinding at the club and thought that was unfair since they were only talking at the time. However, Seungmin didn’t want to talk to him because he really liked him and was crushed that Hyunjin wouldn’t be able to date him since he’s asexual and all. But because Seungmin wasn’t ready to come out to him, he wasn’t really able to defend himself.”

“Jesus christ” Chan breathes, and Jisung nods empathetically.

“Yeah it was a whole mess. I think Seungmin ended up telling Hyunjin that there was more to it and that he wouldn’t understand before storming off and ignoring him again. Of course a few days later we all went to the café together, the one before the beach concert, which is why things were super weird between them. Hyunjin wanted to talk but Seungmin absolutely did not.”

Chan remembers that, the awkward atmosphere as Hyunjin tried desperately to catch Seungmin’s eye, with the slightly younger male stubbornly avoiding looking at him.

“So we went to the beach and had a good time until you got the phone call from Fuckface McDavid.”

Chan tries and fails to hold in a laugh at the nickname, causing Jisung to smile at him.

“Well, and this is where it gets wild, at the beach music festival, Hyunjin tried to talk to Seungmin again and they ended up fighting. Again. And Hyunjin basically accused Seungmin of lying about liking him and stringing him along for no reason and being overdramatic.”

“Ouch” Chan says sympathetically, “so what did Seungmin say?”

“He didn’t say anything” Jisung says, making Chan pause.

“What do you mean?”

“He didn’t say anything” Jisung repeats, “he kissed him.”

Chan feels his eyes widen, and Jisung grins at probably how dumbstruck he looks before continuing. “Yeah they ended up making out super intensely, got cut off by our phone call. It’s why they both looked all ruffled and out of breath when they came up to us at the bench.”

“My brain is all over the place right now” Chan admits, making Jisung giggle.

“Yeah I know, this shit’s kinda wild. So when we dropped Seungmin off, that’s why Hyunjin wanted to talk to him, cause he was very confused at this point. Seungmin also knew that he kinda owed Hyunjin at least a bit of an explanation at this point so he said yes and they both went to his place to talk about it.”

Jisung takes another drink and eats another spoonful of his sundae, which has melted quite a bit with the heat. At the same time, the fairy lights and exposed-bulb lights flicker on overhead, causing them both to pause and admire how pretty it now looks.

“So what happened next?” Chan asks.

“Well, Seungmin apologised for kissing him and sending mixed signals and stuff. I don’t know the whole conversation cause Seungmin didn’t tell me and Felix the whole thing, but from what I understand it, Seungmin basically said that he did like Hyunjin but they couldn’t be together because Seungmin wasn’t comfortable being, you know, sexually available for him and stuff. Which I’m almost certain Hyunjin interpreted as Seungmin being nervous that he was a virgin, which was _not_ what was happening, yay for misunderstandings!”

Chan offers his own sarcastic yay as well.

“Seungmin didn’t realise that’s what Hyunjin thought though so when Hyunjin offered to take him on a date, he said yes. They went to the park or something a few days later, apparently had a really nice time, kissed at the door and all that cute romantic stuff.”

“We do that” Chan points out.

“Yeah I know” Jisung counters easily, “and it’s cute _and_ romantic.”

That successfully shuts Chan up as he flushes a little. Jisung continues talking with a gleam in his eye, he knows exactly what he’s doing to Chan’s poor little gay heart.

“They organised another one I think, but the whole Jeongin getting a tattoo thing happened which kind of put a delay on things. Seungmin helped calm Hyunjin down about it obviously, and after that I think they went on a few more dates? I don’t know how many but it was definitely more than three. The thing is. On their last date they were at Seungmin’s place and I don’t know, I think their makeout sesh must have gotten super spicy or whatever because Hyunjin wanted to, you know, take things further, and Seungmin stopped him.”

“Hyunjin didn’t pressure him did he?” Chan asks, suddenly very concerned, and Jisung shakes his head quickly.

“No thank god, he stopped. But Seungmin was kinda reminded that Hyunjin is a very sexual person and clearly hadn’t got the message when he said the idea of sex made him uncomfy. He ended up asking Hyunjin to leave. Hyunjin thought he’d gone too fast so he left after apologising, and they didn’t talk to one another for a few days. But Hyunjin decided he was gonna go to Seungmin’s place to make sure Seungmin knew that he was sorry and stuff.”

“That’s probably why he didn’t come to the bike maintenance session” Chan says.

“When was that?”

“Late April, like the twenty-seventh or something.”

“Yeah it would have been around then I think.” Jisung agrees. “So Hyunjin goes over and Seungmin says that he thinks they should take a break because he needs to think and they need to focus on their exams. Hyunjin’s pretty against it but he agrees, break lasts until late May-ish? Like they still talk but it’s smalltalk type thing, mostly they’re just hanging out with the group but never each other type thing. June comes around, Seungmin says he’s ready to talk again.”

“I remember Hyunjin saying something about this” Chan admits, “I had no idea all this was going on behind the scenes though.”

Jisung shrugs a shoulder casually in a what-ya-gonna-do gesture.

“So it’s early June, they get together at a café and Seungmin admits that he’s sorry for waiting for so long to talk to him, but with exam revision and stuff time got away from him, which is understandable. He says that he needs to tell Hyunjin something really important before they allow their relationship to go any further. I don’t remember why, but something happened and they had to delay the talk for another day. I think Hyunjin’s mom called him about something and he had to go home? Seungmin wanted to have the conversation in person though so they agreed to wait.”

Chan remembers the hospital room, how much it had looked like the two of them wanted to speak to one another but were more concerned with making sure Chan was okay.

“Then my crash happened” he surmises.

“Then your crash happened.”

“Damn, must have thrown a bit of a spanner in the works for them.”

Jisung laughs, “I’d call your crash a bit more important than a spanner, but yeah basically. They get together again later on, I’m pretty sure it was the night you were discharged or sometime around then, and Seungmin tells Hyunjin he’s asexual and the idea of sex weirds him out. Hyunjin apparently hadn’t even heard of the sexuality, so he said he was going to go away and research it and tell Seungmin his thoughts before he made any decision.”

“Smart choice” Chan remarks.

“Oh for sure, good for him” Jisung says, finishing off the last of his sundae and pushing the tall glass away from him so that he can fold his hands on top of the table.

“So I’m guessing Hyunjin did some research and that’s why he text you about it, and when you were just casually all ‘I’d be fine with it’ or whatever, he realised that expecting sex from someone all the time wouldn’t be a healthy relationship and met up with Seungmin again yesterday night to say that he wants to try the relationship, and it’ll be a bit weird for him since he’s like, the one-night-stand or friends-with-benefits guy, but he’s willing to try. And here we are.”

“Wow” Chan breathes, “I didn’t know there was so much stuff going on behind the scenes. I’m surprised they both managed to keep something this huge under-wraps and not say anything about it.”

“Seungmin’s quite a private person and probably doesn't want it to be common knowledge” Jisung admits, “the only reason why I know all this stuff is specifically because he came to me for advice about the whole thing.”

From that point on the conversation moves on to them, to everything that’s happened between them, and Chan finds a new appreciation for how the fairy lights reflect in Jisung’s eyes, looking like a collection of tiny stars floating in a black and brown sky.

They pay for the desserts and begin the paddle back, talking about summers in LA or something equally mundane, Chan’s not too sure, his head is full of thoughts, of doubts, of nervousness about what he about to do.

Halfway through the paddle, Chan reaches out a hand over Jisung’s lap, gesturing for him to stop paddling, which his boyfriend does, albeit with a little hesitation. Hesitation that fades when he realises that from here they have a fantastic view of the beginning of the sunset, the blue fading into purple and the barest licks of pink and orange cresting the horizon.

For a long moment they just stay there, floating gently on the lake, watching the sun creep ever so slowly across the sky.

“I think I might be in love with you.”

Next to him, Jisung stiffens, and for a horrible, horrible moment, Chan thinks he’s fucked up. But just as he’s about to apologise or backtrack, Jisung relaxes and smiles oddly softly at him.

"About time you caught up" he says lowly, and leans over to kiss him.

Chan relaxes in Jisung’s hold as his boyfriend’s hands come up to cup his face, leaning as best he can in an attempt to slot their bodies together, to hold Jisung as close as he can, to burn this moment into his memory.

* * *

They paddle back to shore and hand in the boat, Jisung calls an uber and Chan finds himself asking if Jisung wants to spend the night at his place since Woojin won't be back for a few hours.

Jisung says yes.

By the time they get through the door to the apartment they’re already entwined together, hands and mouths roaming all over one another, pulling each other closer with a frantic, almost desperate intensity. On the way to his bedroom, Chan is vaguely reminded of the night he confessed about the bet, the wandering hands, the almost magnetic pull in his chest, the fear cloying the back of his head, rising with every second. 

They make it into the bedroom and Jisung practically shoves Chan on the bed before climbing on him to continue the little lovebites he'd been trailing over Chan's collarbone as soon as they got into the apartment. Chan's hands come up and land on Jisung's hips, steadying him.

There's no fear now.

From then on it's a blur of clothes and skin, tongue and teeth. It's electric and Jisung himself is practically _addictive_ as teasing quips followed by little breathy 'ohs' fall from his mouth, sounds that Chan doesn't think he'll ever be able to get out of his head, mixing with his own moans around the bedroom. Sounds that get steadily louder, and louder, before stopping completely.

And Chan falls asleep with Jisung in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little spicy at the end there but I'm too much of a coward to go into detail so *shrug emoji* yaknow?
> 
> Also the whole thing with Seungmin and Hyunjin was going to be a separate fic in the series but based on how little reception this fic got I decided to scrap the sequel and just put it in here, just a lil fun fact for you all.
> 
> Anyway we're coming up to the last couple chapters now, leave a review telling me your thoughts if you're excited to see how this whole thing ends :D

**Author's Note:**

> Me?? Publishing again??? It's more likely than you think. 
> 
> This fic has been in the works for about 5 or 6 months now, maybe longer tbh, I just haven't gotten around to posting it until now. Woojin will be in this fic for that reason, as it's too late for me to go back and remove him (not that I would want to anyway, but the point stands). Regardless I hope you all enjoy it! :D
> 
> My boyfriend has been waiting so patiently (and not so patiently lmao) for this fic since I started planning it, and I've finally posted it! So happy birthday Noah!!! I love you so fucking much you fantastic rat bastard man, you've been an endless source of motivation for me, and I hope you enjoy it <3
> 
> Cover work by [@MakotoRitsu](https://twitter.com/MakotoRitsu) on twitter! Go check out her art and give her loads of love she's Amazing and was so nice and helpful when I was getting this commissioned!


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